The Milton Berle Collection Review

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(More customer reviews)I was disappointed in this set of 5 DVDs. Most descriptions on the Internet of this DVD set state "Here's Uncle Miltie at the top of his form on the classic Texaco Star Theatre!" The Texaco Star Theater aired from 1948 to 1953. This DVD set does NOT contain any of The Texaco Star Theater shows. Instead, this set of DVDs is actually five shows from The Milton Berle Buick Show which aired from 1953 to 1955. Like many people, I think a little Milton Berle goes a long way. But, The Texaco Star Theater shows were historic television and worth viewing. Those early shows are what earned Milton Berle the nickname "Mr. Television," with his trademark entrance to each show and the vaudeville-like format of the show-including impressive guest star appearances, in many cases by stars making their debut television appearances. And, it was these early shows that were responsible for the rapid increase in television sales. By 1953, the year of the shows featured on this DVD set, television variety shows had matured, Milton Berle's writing staff had changed, and the format of his show was very different. I would recommend waiting for DVDs to be released (hopefully) that feature the early Texaco Star Theater shows.

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Ray Bradbury Theater Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the exact same product at the DVD set listed as the "Ray Bradbury Theater Complete Series" but for less money and comes with a collectible tin. This was $18 vs. $31 for the other version. When you open the tin up, the package inside looks exactly the same as the picture for the other version, and even lists the copyright date as 2004.
I haven't watched all the episodes yet, but if you like Ray Bradbury, you can't beat this set for this price. The complete series on 5 DVDs with all 65 episodes for under $20-you can't go wrong.

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Danger: Diabolik (1968) Review

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(More customer reviews)Once upon a time films were made with low budgets and heaps of imagination, and this is one of them. Though given a whopping $3M by the ego-maniac Dino de Laurentis (King Kong the atrocious remake) the genius Mario Bava brought this 60s beauty in at $400K. Even converted into today's hard currency it would be hard to conceive of a modern day director either struggling out of bed for such a miniscule sum, or ever bringing a film in under budget. Instead Bava treats the eye and the mind to a dazzling psychedelic modernist fantasy.
There seems to be a common notion that many directors of the past were somehow more stupid than the giant intellects of the cinema of today and that they had no comprehension of what they were doing. Bava knew exactly what he was making with this movie version of a popular European comic and that was to make a film that was fun.
Pitted against a world of old stilted politics, bumbling police and chalk-stripe-suited Mafia villains Diabolik, a cool ultra-thief with an underground lair to be envied by Dr No and every other evil genius, outwits his pursuers time and time again with a manic laugh, a delicious girl-friend and his 'n' hers Jaguar E-Types.
This film is a two-hour trip; the score is superb and the images have a vivid organic feel unachievable with today's over-processed CGI FX. If you love the visuals of Barbarella you'll love this. Bava, though, has a more cynical view of the world and in one scene presents us with a nightclub where villains ply the "innocent" hippies with drugs making them dance in hysterically funny ways that is just as an incisive critique of that era as it would be of some rave scenes today. Some things just don't change.
Sure if you want to adopt the brave stance of the post-modernist and assume the sophisticated position of The One Who Laughs At Bad Old Films then you'll get some kind of kick out of this. But you won't get anything like the kick you will by just relaxing into the brilliantly-lit mad world of Mario Bava where nothing is quite what it appears and baddies win - almost.

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The suave, psychedelic-era thief called Diabolik (Law) can't get enough of life's good - or glittery - things. Not when there are currency shipments to steal from under the noses of snooty government officials and priceless jewels to lift from the boudoirs of the superrich. The elusive scoundrel finds plenty of ways to live up to his name in this tongue-in-cheek, live-action caper inspired by Europe's popular Diabolic comics. He clambers up walls, zaps a press conference with Exhilaration Gas, smacks a confession out of a crime lord while freefalling with him from an airplane, and pulls off the heist of a twenty-ton gold ingot.

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Matinee (1993) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was 12 years old during the Cuban Missle Crisis, in love with cheap, schlocky horror movies (ANYTHING with Vincent Price!), and had a subscription to "Famous Monsters of Filmland" Magazine, so, except for living in Florida (I lived in Hollywood - well - Los Angeles, the only place for a film fanatic to grow up) this could be my biography. When the boy is shown with monster magazines spread all over his bed, they're real magazines from the period, and I had every last blessed one of them! I also had the monster models in his bedroom. When he turns into a fount of movie minutia at lunch, he IS me at school lunch, the kid who knew the difference between William Castle and Roger Corman, who couldn't have mistaken Dick Miller, who knew every trivial fact about every trivial horror movie ever made, and who would share them all with anyone in earshot. This hilarious yet heartfelt movie pushed all my nostalgia buttons. Even now, I can say what's that poster for "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" doing in a 1962 movie theater when the film hadn't even been shot yet? I remember the panic in our local grocery store during the missle crisis, and it was exactly as Dante shows it in the film. It's my favorite John Goodman performance. He was born to play William Castle, aka "Lawrence Woolsey". This is Joe Dante at his best. Apparently he and I had the exact same childhood.

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Step back into a time of outrageous movie-theater gimmicks and larger-than-life B-screen stars in this charming homage to the great sci-fi and horror flicks of the 1950s and 1960s.John Goodman is at his uproarious best as the William Castle-inspired movie promoter Lawrence Woolsey, who brings his unique brand of flashy showmanship to the unsuspecting residents of Key West, Florida.It's 1962, and fifteen-year-old fan Gene Loomis (Simon Fenton) can't wait for the arrival of Woolsey, who is in town to promote his latest offering of atomic power gone berserk, MANT!. But the absurd vision of Woolsey's tale takes on a sudden urgency as the Cuban Missile Crisis places the real threat of atomic horror just 90 miles off the coast. With the help of Gene and Woolsey's leading lady, Ruth (Cathy Moriarty), the master showman gives Key West a premiere they'll never forget. Anything can happen in the movies, and everything does in this hilarious tribute to a more innocent (and outrageous) time in American cinema.

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The Outer Limits Original Series Complete Box Set Review

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(More customer reviews)This is my second review in as many that has given a zero to the poor packaging and contents and higher marks to the show itself.Let's take a look at the show first and then we'll take a look at the rest.
This is one of the top Sci-Fi shows ever to appear on television.Created by Leslie Stevens and Joe Stefano the show made its' premiere in Sept. of 1963 and WHAT a premiere it was."The Galaxy Being" certainly scared the living begeesus out of me and I will never forget that.The whole look and feel was totally different and it definitely was not The Twilight Zone but a deep and darker version of it.Nothing that intense had been seen on TV before and nothing would equal it's impact for many years.The show was directly helmed by the team of Stefano and Stevens with Dominic Frontieres' great scoring in the background through all of season one.When Season two arrived all three had departed and were replaced by others.The format underwent minor changes but it basically stayed true to its' roots.The entire story is detailed wonderfully in the "Outer Limits Companion" by David Schow and Jeff Frentzen.
Some prefer one season over the other but there is much to recommend both.Season one has its' "Galaxy Being","The Zanti Misfits","Second Chance" ,"Production and Decay of Strange Particles" and "A Feasibility Study".Season Two "The Inheritors-Parts 1&2","Keeper of the Purple Twilight" and one of the entire series top eps "The Demon with the Glass Hand".The series is filled with many well known actors like Cliff Robertson,Ted Knight,Robert Culp,Ed Asner,Eddie Albert,Robert Duvall and so many more.There is also a huge Star Trek connection as William Shatner,Leonard Nimoy and James Doohan would all make appearances,along with many of the future shows supporting actors.The ep "Production and Decay..." contains at least five future Trek actors at once,including Leonard Nimoy!
The show never had a big budget and many of the shows today look dated as a result but in quite a few like "Demon...",the props are totally minimal and it is the great script,direction and acting that more than compensate for any shortcomings in the special effects department.That the show could do so much with so little at times,is a testament to the skill of everyone involved.
It is so unfortunate it only lasted two short seasons as the show should have gone many more.As one ep in the first season states:"Maybe young people are the only ones who listen and understand-you can't reach a closed mind".And so it was,as the almighty ratings beast dictated to the head network honchos just how they ought to proceed with shows;promising or not.The biggest shows' fans were the younger gen of the time who did write in frequently praising the show but it was the adults in the end who controlled the decision making of what to watch and they weren't generally impressed with the show;at least not enough for ABC to continue with it.To top this,in the second season it was put up against the ever popular(among the entire family) Jackie Gleason Show;and Gleason wasn't going anywhere.The show may have been cancelled but it has continued in syndication ever since staying in the collective memories of those who first saw it and gaining new fans along the way.
Now let's look at the presentation.The one thing positive about this new set is the price.The original release about eight years ago broke the series into two release sets and both at the same price(at least $10 higher than this set per season!).Everything else goes down hill from here.MGM has decided in their "wisdom" to re-release this set again in the double sided disc format.BAD choice,period.As I stated in my other recent review Universal and MGM(among others) have a fondness for this type of release;it is cheap and yields the greastest profit.DVDs are notoriously scuff and scratch prone and that alone should preclude any such release of this type if these companies actually cared about the product and consumers.
The second thing about this "new" set is...that it isn't.I do not see any difference in the transfer of this product onto DVD from the original release sets."A Feasibility Study" was particlularly grainy in the first release and it remains so in this one and all other eps with any excesses in this area are also the same.So the question presents itself:"Why?".Why would MGM not remaster these eps like they should be,after all this time?
I can certainly recommend the series itself as a groundbreaking one of its' day,as many of the eps still hold up very well,despite the budgetary restrictions.But it gets a zero as far as release presentation goes.It certainly is cheaper than the original release sets but it is just a simple re-packaging of the material on hand.Shame on MGM.

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