Posts Tagged ‘DVD on TV Reviews’

Cadillac Records

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant for Cadillac Records

It's a very peculiar sensation to know that history is occurring around you. I felt that way back in 1991 when I first heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the radio, as suddenly the entirety of the "hair metal" movement of the 80s was wiped off the musical map, loser of a war that it never even knew was coming. I can only imagine that people like Muddy Waters felt much the same way when Elvis Presley and the forces of rock n' roll wiped The Blues out of the minds of America's youth, just like that. It's a subject that surprisingly hasn't been covered by Hollywood up until now, and Darnell Martin's Cadillac Records takes a pretty impressive crack at it with a movie that immediately made me run to ITunes and buy the original recordings. So it's definitely got that going for it right off the bat.

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The SmarK DVD Rant: Based on a True Story!

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant - Based On a True Story!

I've always found "based on a true story" to be an odd phrase, as normally things are either true or false, whereas it is a uniquely Hollywood proposition to proclaim something as factual while still fudging details to make it more entertaining. Even stranger to do so when the true stories in question are sometimes more unlikely than anything that the overworked screenwriters could have thought of.

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The SmarK DVD Rant for The Back to the Future Trilogy

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant for the Back to the Future Trilogy

[Note from time-traveling Scott in 2009:  This is a repost and update of my original rant on the trilogy from 2002, which has been recently re-released by Universal in single-disc sets.  I'm assuming that since it was written 7 years ago, a good chunk of my readership won't have read the original anyway]

Time travel stories give me a headache.

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The SmarK DVD Rant for The Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant for The Best of Saturday Night's Main Event

I have been waiting anxiously for this one for a while now.

Disc One

- Hosted by Mean Gene

- So let us take you back to the Rock N Wrestling era in 1985, as SNME replaces SNL reruns once every few weeks…

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The SmarK DVD Rant for Dead Like Me: Life After Death

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant for Dead Like Me: Life After Death

Poor Bryan Fuller, every project he launches is just too far ahead of the curve for the world and dies before its time. The most spectacular example of that was Pushing Daisies, which had the best pilot I've ever seen and strong ratings to match, but died out in the wake of the writer's strike and a long hiatus. Before that, however, his most celebrated cause was Dead Like Me, which only ran for two seasons on Showtime before getting axed for reasons that are still kind of mysterious today. Ratings were fine, the show wasn't hugely expensive to produce and the network was generally happy with the product despite constant tinkering and notes from Day 1. In fact, Fuller left after the pilot, but his whimsical touch could be seen all through the run of the show. But now, as though revived by the Piemaker, Dead Like Me has been touched and brought back to life!

They probably shouldn't have bothered, though.

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Futurama

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant for Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder

"All good things must come to an end…hopefully with giant explosions!"

- Zapp Brannigan

 

And so, after four seasons on TV and another four made-for-DVD movies, we finally say goodbye to Futurama, killed off long before it could become a parody of itself or jump the proverbial shark. Unfortunately the revival of the show in DVD form has been hit-or-miss to say the least, as each "movie" is more intended to be four individual episodes for later airing, rather than a cohesive whole. So while the first try, Bender's Big Score, did well to recapture the magic and tight plotting of the series, the next two movies tended to be a bit more meandering and dull. In particular, Bender's Game felt like they spent so much time paying tribute to Dungeons & Dragons that they forgot to write any jokes.

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LOW: Heatseekers

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

Another round of DVD reviewage from Charlie Reneke...

Since you're not doing this series (and considering Saturday Night's Main Event is on it's way, can't blame you), might as well let you use the rest of the reviews.  By the way, since I know you're a big Owen Hart fan and also an atheist, I advise you to not read my review of Russo/Booker, as hearing Vince Russo's excuse for Over the Edge could make your blood boil at unhealthy levels.  Seriously, pissed me off just writing it down.

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Guest Rant: Legends Bonus Disc

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Charlie Reneke writes...

I don't know if you planned on doing the Legends of Wrestling set that the WWE put out this last Tuesday, but if not I'm writing reviews of the sets, including the three Best Buy exclusive discs.  Here's the first one.  I didn't recap the round table discussions because they don't exactly lend themselves to it well.  The other two (Andre/Sheik and Piper/Funk) will be done shortly too.

 

Indeed I'm not planning on doing the Legends DVD, as I have to save up my excitement for the SNME DVD that should be arriving from Highspots next week.  That being said, the Hogan/Backlund show on 24/7 has the distinct honor of being one of the few shows that has actually put me to sleep because it's so dull, with the other being an MSG card from 1981 that had some ridiculous main event like Backlund v. Baron Mikel Sciculuna in a 2/3 falls match.  

On with the review...

 

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The DVD rant nine years in the making!

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant for Ready To Rumble

I think it's only fair that, in the wake of Mickey Rourke's amazing performance in The Wrestler receiving an Oscar nod, we journey back to the last time someone made a serious attempt at a movie about pro wrestling.

Unfortunately, the movie was Ready to Rumble. Starring David Arquette. Years ago someone bought it for me under the assumption that I might want to watch it someday. Well, I figured after nine years of sitting in my collection, I might as well give it a look.

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The SmarK DVD Rant for Edge: Decade of Decadence

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant for Edge: A Decade of Decadence

They totally stole that title from Motley Crue.

- Hosted by Edge (duh). This is another talk-and-show format, although the "documentary" aspect is totally abandoned 10 minutes into the first disc and then never seen again.

Disc One

Edge v. Owen Hart

From the underrated Breakdown '98 PPV. This is in Hamilton, so Owen wears a Toronto Argos jersey to be a real dick. He still gets a pretty sizeable face pop despite that. Owen takes him down with a top wristlock and pounds on the arm, then monkey-flips Edge out of the corner, but Edge lands on his feet and hits a dropkick. Rana and clothesline put Owen on the floor, and Edge fakes a highspot before hitting a baseball slide. Edge dives at him, but Owen catches him with a powerslam on the floor and they head back in, where Owen does some old school flying with a missile dropkick for two. Gut wrench suplex gets two. Backbreaker and neckbreaker get two. Overhead belly to belly gets two. We hit the chinlock and Edge fights up, so Owen uses the Wrestlemania X victory roll for two, which Edge reverses for two. Edge gets a crossbody for two, but Owen gets the enzuigiri gets two. Owen goes up to gloat and Edge brings him down with an inverted powerbomb, then flapjacks him. Neckbreaker gets two for Edge. Edge goes up and Owen moves, but again he plays it up and Edge DDTs him for two. They trade german suplex attempts and Edge gets a northern lights for two. Owen with a german suplex for two. Owen misses a charge and Edge takes him to the top, but Owen blocks it and comes down for the Sharpshooter. Edge reverses that for two. Leg lariat follows, but the mysterious (and long-haired) Christian Cage shows up at ringside and Owen rolls Edge up for the pin at 9:16. Edge was smart and let Owen do the heavy lifting here, as he looked really tentative and nervous with everything. ***

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