Having missed the two previous Mummy films, I wasn’t too concerned about watching the third in the series, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. This film contains an entirely new storyline separate from the first two, and I figured it would be easy enough to catch up on who the characters are and what happened in previous stories fairly quickly. Roger Ebert may have declared this film “the best in the series,” but I had quite a few people tell me to be prepared to be let down.

Maybe it was low expectations, or maybe the taste in my mouth was still sour after that travesty called Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but I found Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to be a good old-fashioned popcorn film that combined the mysticism and grandeur of the Lord of the Rings movies with the adventure and hijinks of the ’80s (i.e. good) Indiana Jones films (in particular Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).

The film opens with a very Lord of the Rings-like prologue, complete with a noble-sounding female narrator. We learn that the ruthless Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) and his 10,000 warriors were mummified centuries ago when they tried to achieve immortality. A sorceress (Michelle Yeoh) cursed the emperor and his men after he brutally killed her lover. We then jump ahead to the late 1940s and meet the O’Connell family. Brendan Fraser is explorer and famed Mummy slayer Rick O’Connell, and Maria Bello (with a delectable English accent) plays his wife, Evelyn (a role originated by Rachel Weisz). After their adventures in the previous Mummy films, they have settled down on a large English estate to live a peaceful life. Evelyn has written two successful books based on their adventures, and Rick is giving fly fishing a shot, but both are stir crazy and miss bullets flying past their heads and monsters trying to kill them.

Meanwhile, Alex O’Connell (Luke Ford), son of Rick and Evelyn and a dashing young adventurer himself, has unearthed the tomb of the emperor and his massive army. Alex is tricked into awakening the ruler and must rely on the help of his parents, a mysterious warrior girl (Isabella Leong) and the immortal sorceress (Yeoh) to stop the emperor before he takes his army of immortal warriors and conquers the world. Stopping the emperor is not easy, as he possesses supernatural powers, is able to control fire, wind and water, and he can also shape-shift into fantastical monsters. (more…)

In the annals of television history, Son of the Beach will not go down as a classic show — and I don’t mean that as an insult to comedian Tim Stack or the funny show that he created with David Morgasen and James R. Stein.  And from listening to the audio commentaries throughout the Volume 2 DVD box set just released by Shout! Factory and Fox, you get the feeling that they’d be the first to admit the same thing.  That said, Son of the Beach certainly was fun, in a juvenile, boys’ locker room way, which makes sense since it was co-produced by Howard Stern.  Moreover, it was popular enough to warrant three seasons on FX between 2000 and 2002.  The Volume 2 box collects 21 episodes, the last seven from season 2 and all of season 3.

Set in the coastal town of Malibu Adjacent, CA, Son of the Beach follows the exploits of Natch Johnson (Stack), lifeguard extraordinaire and leader of SPF 30, his team of lifeguards sworn to project the beaches.  The crew includes B.J. Cummings (Jaime Bergman), the hot, airhead blonde, Chip Rommel (Roland Kickinger) a musclebound bodybuilder with a thick German accent, Jamaica St. Croix (Leila Arcieri), the sassy, no nonsense urban chick, and Kimberlee Clark (Kimberly Oja), the smart girl next door who feels her calling is in lifeguarding, not curing the world’s diseases.  Together, they have outlandish adventures that would be pointless to describe because most of the episodes are merely making fun of plots from other television shows or movies.  But no one watches Son of the Beach for deep thoughts; it’s essential viewing for the bikini-clad hot babes and the double entendres and gross-out jokes that fly by a mile a minute.

As with anything associated with Howard Stern, nothing is sacred.  Race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, the handicapped — all are fair game.  You may find yourself cringing at some of the off-color jokes, but in a way, the show is merely carrying on the tradition of All in the Family and Blazing Saddles, which used humor subversively to make the audience reflect on their own prejudices.  Son of the Beach in no way reaches the stature of those two examples; however, you still may find yourself laughing hard then questioning yourself after the fact.  Morgasen, Stack and Stein were after the quick laugh, no matter what, but they were clever enough to slip a little social commentary into a show or two. (more…)

“You have no will, no mind of your own,” intones the dastardly villain in The Brides of Fu Manchu, one-half of a horripilating double feature available today. Fu, I hear yu. I gave up brick-and-mortar DVD shopping years ago, but when Warner Home Video or Universal Home Entertainment announce that they’re making their vintage horror and sci-fi movies available only through Best Buy, off I go. The studios know that kids weaned on Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine (goodbye, Uncle Forry) will as grown-up consumers do anything to get their hands on essential ephemera from their childhoods, even rummage through a—gasp!—Best Buy, where it’s never a sure thing that the titles will be in stock, or, just as bad, correctly categorized. (People, if the packaging says “horror” or “sci-fi,” how about putting it there, and not under “action-adventure” or “drama”?)

How sweet it is, though, to finally, finally hold in your hot little hands a favorite like the Warner-supplied When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, which this past summer slipped onto the market in an uncut, Holy Grail version, where the vivacious cavewomen fleeing the stop-motion saurians are topless in a couple of scenes, more than compensating for the historical inaccuracy. Who could wait for that? But if you had the patience, the film (twinned on DVD with a lesser Hammer picture, Moon Zero Two) did show up for online purchase, as have The Brides of Fu Manchu and Chamber of Horrors, double trouble I found more resistible. Produced in 1966, the features haven’t aged as well as their titillating posters, but the letterboxed transfers, while lacking supplements of any kind, are presentable.

For completion’s sake, Brides, the second of a series of films starring Christopher Lee as the Oriental criminal mastermind, should be paired with its predecessor, 1965’s The Face of Fu Manchu, the only one of the five movies still MIA on DVD. Face and Brides are the easiest to differentiate, as they have some inkling of style and a few bucks behind them; the rest are bargain-budget lunch specials. Long before there was political correctness there was Sax Rohmer’s yellow peril genius, threatening the West with extinction, a pulp boogeyman played to the hilt by Boris Karloff in 1932’s The Mask of Fu Manchu and a career ender for Peter Sellers in the alleged 1980 comedy The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu. (more…)

Mamma Mia! The Movie (Two-Disc Special Edition (2008, Universal)
purchase this DVD (Amazon)

I freely admit I’m not the target audience for this movie. Being without a vagina, an attraction to men, and/or a fondness for the music of ABBA, I went into Mamma Mia! The Movie pretty much figuring that I’d have some problems with it. I’m not a really big fan of musicals, actually; all things being equal, Jason “I Love Showtunes” Hare would be the Popdose staffer reviewing this for you.

Still, I’m capable of objectively assessing a piece of entertainment, even if it isn’t meant for me, and even if I don’t care for ABBA’s music, I am a fan of the lovely Amanda Seyfried, whose work as the sane daughter on Big Love I’ve long appreciated. How bad could Mamma Mia! be?

I will tell you.

I finished watching this movie almost 24 hours ago, and I’m still sort of awestruck by it, because Mamma Mia! is both the most painful and most fun movie I’ve seen in a very long time. The acting is so over the top that it reeks of ham — but the actors’ giddiness is all part of an undeniably infectuous sense of fun. The musical numbers are shoehorned into something that vaguely resembles a plot, from a distance, if you squint — but you’ll still be humming them after the movie’s over. Every single moment of Mamma Mia! is absolutely ludicrous…but it also contains some of the most beautifully filmed sequences I’ve seen in a very long time.

In short, Mamma Mia! is a great viewing option if you’re drunk, or in a bad mood, but if you’re looking for a movie that makes a lick of sense — even in the context of musicals, which frequently require the viewer to turn off large chunks of his or her analytic mind — it will most likely annoy you to the point of distraction, especially if you’re prone to difficulty with things like a chorus line of scuba-flippered men, or plot points that suddenly appear or vanish, or the sight of Colin Firth in a slow-motion topless dance. (more…)

The Longshots (2008, Dimension Films)
(Purchase at Amazon)

Let’s face it, I knew going into watching The Longshots that I wasn’t the intended audience. I could have watched it alone and written a snarky review about how Ice Cube’s transformation from Earth’s most pissed-off rapper to most cuddly family film star is nearly complete, but I chose to watch it with my family.

My daughter, Sophie, is a big fan of Keke Palmer, star of Akeelah and the Bee and the hit Disney channel movie about double dutch jump roping, Jump In. I, too, have been impressed with the young Miss Palmer, who was able to hold her own in Akeelah and the Bee opposite two mighty actors, Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne. I was also curious to see how well Fred Durst — yeah, that dude from Limp Bizkit — was able to direct a film. Throw in a supporting role by Garrett Morris, and people, I was ready to watch The Longshots.

The film is based on the true story of Jasmine Plummer, the first female quarterback ever to lead a team in the Pop Warner football tournament. In the film, Jasmine (Palmer) is a wallflower who keeps her nose buried in books and has no friends. Her divorced mother, Claire (Tasha Smith) implores her daughter to get involved in extracurricular activities, but Jasmine is happy keeping to herself. When Claire has to take on longer hours at the diner where she works, she reluctantly asks her brother-in-law, Curtis, to babysit his niece after school. Curtis (Ice Cube) is an out of work factory worker and former high school football star whose one shot out of the poor Louisiana town where they live was ruined when he screwed up his knee tripping on a street curb. Curtis wants nothing to do with his niece (partly from guilt, because her father is his deadbeat brother) and only agrees to watch Jasmine when Claire promises to pay him. It’s when Curtis and Jasmine come together that the film picks up the pace and become a little more interesting. Up until then, you have a lot of setup (and marginal direction from Durst). (more…)

Somewhere in the translation from script to screen, a really smart idea got lost when Anamorph was made. That’s not to say that the movie is entirely bad (and it certainly deserves better treatment than it received from its distributor), but Anamorph never quite reaches its full potential dramatically or as a thriller.

Willem Dafoe stars as a homicide detective haunted by a serial killer case that was supposedly solved when a man was shot and killed (unarmed and sitting in chair) in his home. Dafoe’s character carries around the guilt of one of the victims and has gone into teaching instead of continuing as an investigator. Five years later, a possible copycat, or perhaps the original killer (he called himself Uncle Teddy) is back on a killing spree. What makes this maniac unique is his method of murder: His victim’s bodies are used to construct elaborate, gruesome works of art. The killer/artist creates works in the concept of anamorphosis, a painting technique that manipulates the laws of perspective to create two competing images on a single canvas.

Sounds clever, huh? Unfortunately, that one idea gets lost amongst the attempts by Writer/director H.S. Miller and his co-writer Tom Phelan to create strong characters and a convincing plot. Shame, because so much of Anamorph is excellent, starting with the cast. (more…)

The parallels between 1976 and 2008 are undeniable. Back then, the economy was in shambles, suffering through a wicked bout of inflation. Late in the year, hope arrived in the person of Jimmy Carter, a Democrat who was elected president to put an end to eight dark years of Republican rule. Sound familiar?

Sadly, no such parallels exist within the music world. In 1976, record companies were on the verge of seeing some of their biggest sales ever. Artistic giants prowled the stages of the world. Concert venues were sold out everywhere. New York City was soon to give birth, nearly simultaneously, to both the disco and the punk movements, even as the city faced financial ruin.

Elsewhere on the musical landscape, funk was in its ascendancy, and the undeniable kings of the genre were Parliament-Funkadelic. George Clinton had founded Parliament as a barbershop quintet back in the ’60s, and that is literally what they were, as Clinton earned a living my styling hair while rehearsing with the vocal group. Parliament had a #3 R&B hit in 1967 with “I Wanna Testify,” but the winds of change were blowing, and it wasn’t long before Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone showed up on the scene to change things forever. Of course, no discussion of funk can even begin without talking about the man who invented the genre, and James Brown was at the peak of his powers.

It was a combination of these musical influences, together with the rise of the black power movement, and the availability of psychedelic drugs that informed Clinton’s next move. While Parliament continued on, he created a rock band that he called Funkadelic. They toured the northeast, often sharing the bill with white bands like the Stooges, and the MC5, and also hit the black college circuit in the South and on the East Coast.

(more…)

Spin City: The Complete Season 1 (Dreamworks/Shout! Factory) (Buy this DVD at Amazon)

The success of any workplace series comes down to casting. If we believe that every character in a show could be our co-worker or friend, then the show should be destined for success. Perhaps the greatest example isThe Mary Tyler Moore Show, which created a real sense of family with the oddballs that supported Moore during her historic show’s run. Since then, countless numbers of sitcoms have tried and failed to capture what Moore’s did so well.

However, Spin City came close in its seven-year run. With a certified television icon, Michael J. Fox, as the show’s center, the producers of Spin City had gold to work with. DreamWorks Television and Shout! Factory have just released the first season of Spin City in a sleek new DVD box set that reminds us of the comic genius of Michael J. Fox and how great network sitcoms used to be.

Created by Gary David Goldberg, who had discovered Fox and guided him to fame on Family Ties, and Bill Lawrence, who would go on to create the beloved Scrubs (which took the visual humor of Spin City a step further), Spin City showed the inner workings of the Mayor’s office in New York City. One of the luxuries of watching a complete season of a television show, especially one in its first season, is seeing it work out the kinks and find its true voice over the course of 13 or 22 episodes. In the case of Spin City, the producers had a bit of a dilemma. Was it a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of the mayor’s office, or was it a work place comedy with romantic inclinations?

As the cast portraying the mayor’s staff gradually revealed how talented they were, it didn’t matter how charming Fox and Carla Gugino (playing his reporter girlfriend Ashley) were together — the laughs came from the interaction of the mayor’s staff and the mayor himself. Listening to the commentary of Goldberg and Lawrence, they express regret that they couldn’t have had both facets of the show carry on. But as you can see by the end of the first season, it was just more interesting to watch the oddball characters in the office.

(more…)

Just in time for the holidays, the complete Speed Racer series has been re-released in a groovy collector’s set.  If you’re a fan of the popular anime cartoon that came to the U.S. in the ’60s, you’ll totally dig what Lionsgate has done: All 52 episodes come packaged in a metal tin shaped like the Mach 5 (Speed Racer’s car, in case you’re not hip) and are housed in a classy softcover book (colorful and environmentally thoughtful!).  As much as possible, the original filmed episodes have been cleaned up and the sound has been spruced up to make the show as fresh as possible

When we look back on entertainment from our childhood, whether it’s books, movies, or in this case, an animated series, you always run the risk of that beloved piece of entertainment losing its luster. That’s why some people warn about looking back on those visceral memories. Still, we can’t resist, can we?  We want to feel young again.  I’ll admit, the animation is still very limited, the pacing is a tad slow, and the lip assignment never matches the dialogue.  But it never did when we were kids! Speed Racer was always a limiting experience when it came to its animation.  But the stories were and remain fun and cool.  Furthermore, there is a sincerity to the trust and love these characters have for each other that manages to come thorough even though Speed Racer is a flatly drawn cartoon.  I think that’s why the show continues to delight kids despite the wildly outlandish Wachowski Brothers feature film and the highly inferior Speed Racer: Next Generation series (more on that later).

Speaking from experience, I also know that young kids still get into the show: my son watches with fascination each time it comes on. There’s enough action to keep him entertained, and enough humor to make him guffaw. As a parent, I’m glad that he likes Speed, Racer X, Spiddle and the rest of the gang.  So much children’s entertainment has an edge, either in its humor or in the level of action/violence, that I appreciate not having to worry when I walk away from the TV set when he’s watching Speed Racer.

(more…)

The press materials for The Who at Kilburn 1977 describe this DVD as “a holy grail for fans after decades of anticipation,” and that’s no piece of bull dreamed up by somebody in marketing. Die-hard Who fans (a group of which I proudly include myself as a member) have long since obsessed over obtaining audio and/or video from a handful of legendary shows, including, but not limited to:

• London, 5/2/69: the premiere of Tommy to the press at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club;

• Newcastle, 11/5/73: the sixth night of the Quadrophenia tour, when the band’s backing tapes failed, resulting in Townshend pulling longtime soundman Bobby Pridden across the soundboard, ripping out backing tapes and smashing equipment, all to the disbelief of the rest of the band … and the entire crowd;

• Kilburn, 12/15/77: aka the second-to-last Who concert to feature Keith Moon, filmed for inclusion in Jeff Stein’s masterpiece rockumentary The Kids Are Alright but shelved because of a subpar performance by an out-of-practice band (save for the inclusion of “My Wife” on the TKAA soundtrack and a few 15-30 second clips over the years).

Audio from the Kilburn show surfaced on a bootleg in the early part of this decade (oddly enough, most likely from one of my cassette tapes, but that’s another story) and last week, the full concert, warts and all, was finally released in all its six-camera, 35mm glory, along with a second disc featuring footage from a Tommy show at the London Coliseum.

So now, the questions can be answered: were the ‘oo truly ‘orrible? Is the Kilburn show nothing but a display of mediocrity? Were the Who justified in shelving it for all these years?

Hardly.

(more…)