What happens when two young men let their love of movies, comic books, and all things “geek” take over their lives? They run away from their families, bringing only the most essential DVDs and comics to their secret, highly fortified underground bunker in sunny Southern California, where they start recording podcasts that will change the world.
Are they heroes?
No.
Are they geniuses?
Far from it.
Are they the future of this planet?
I sure hope not.
Simply put… Matt Cohen and Jesse Rivers are “Bagged and Boarded”.
BAGGED & BOARDED #33: A Spider With Gigantic Mouse Ears – In which Matt and Jesse are in the same room again and discuss the big issue of the millennia – Disney purchasing Marvel. Throw in some random Anime/One Piece chatter and general cleaning house, and you’ve got yourself a jam-packed pod-tastic audio adventure. Remember to keep your hands and feet inside the awesomeness at all times.
[CONTENT WARNING]:This podcast may contain some foul language and horribly off-color jokes. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
[Spoiler Alert: I discuss the plot of the film in detail.]
Dead Snow does everything a splatter-zombie film is supposed to do. It gathers a group of young people in a remote spot, slowly unleashes an at first mysterious deadly force on them, picks off the characters one by one but backwards from the least to the most significant, and has the requisite number of bloody moments ““ eyes are squished, intestines are re-employed for interesting external uses, and jaws chomp down on writhing bodies. I haven’t read any reviews or production histories of the film but this polished, well-photographed effort has the flavor of a calling card film. It pleads, “I can put a coherent commercial property together so please hire me.”
All that being said, Dead Snow, along with other recent horror films, such as Drag Me to Hell and the numerous ’70s remakes, raises some interesting questions about the state of horror.
Splatter movies are perhaps the defining interest of many movie geeks (a phrase I’ve come to hate) I know and know about. The genre is the cinematic equivalent of a wheat chaffer, and it separates the high art aficionado film connoisseurs from the rabid fans who essentially reject Hollywood (unless it is Cameron or Fincher or a few other select exceptions) and instead embrace the kind of regional, low-budget, extreme threshold violating strait-to-video style movies celebrated in Stephen Thrower’s terrific book Nightmare USA. The thing I wonder about, indeed have always wondered about even as I enjoy some of these movies myself, is what is the world view of these spectators, of these movies?
But first, let’s go into detail about the plot, perhaps as an entry point into what people get out of this genre.
In two separate cars, four boys and three girls drive to a rendezvous in a Norwegian ski cabin. The girls are Hanna (Charlotte Frogner), her cousin, the squeaky voiced Chris (Jenny Skavlan), and Hanna’s friend Liv (Evy Kasseth Rosten). That’s all we know about them, though it helps to know that Norway is one of the richest countries in the world ““ as a general background to the kids’ leisure time activities ““ and that it is the Bethlehem of death metal. The boys are Martin (Vegar Hoel), a medical student with a problematic phobia of blood, Erlend (Jeppe Beck Laursen), the requisite horror movie buff, Roy (Stig Frode Henriksen), who is characterized as the “horniest guy north of the Arctic Circle” though we don’t really see much evidence of that character trait in the subsequent narrative, and who seems to speak a dialect different from the others, and Vegard (Lasse Valdal), the cute one, whose girlfriend Sara (Ane Dahl Torp) is skiing cross country to meet them all at the cabin. Unfortunately, as we the viewers know from the opening sequence but the characters don’t, Sara is already dead, having been attacked by some unknown assailants with apparent cannibalistic inclinations.
Upon arriving at the cabin, the kids indulge in some snow mobile hijinks, flirt a bit, and then retire to the cabin.
The nature of the horror is first alluded to by a lone traveller who comes into the cabin for a coffee. He is openly contemptuous of the youngsters, and also tells them a campfire story about the menace lurking in the mountains. It seems that during World War II, a German occupying force of 300 men called Einsatz controlled the village of Oksfjord, which was important to the war effort because of its conveniently placed harbor. These Nazis were unusually cruel to the villagers. As the war went against the Germans, the soldiers, led by a Colonel Herzog, raided the houses and stole as much gold and coins as they could find. Finally, the villagers rose up against their oppressors and, using various farm tools, attacked the Nazis, who fled to the mountains of Istind with their ill-gotten gains, and where they presumably froze to death. This narrative is told in that close slow-track-in trick that signifies to viewers that something of great or scary importance is being related. It’s also a story that sets up the classic “dangerous village” premise of so many horror films, An American Werewolf in London and Kill, Baby … Kill! being two varied examples. Not that we ever see any of the village.
This anecdote at the same time explains everything about the Nazi zombies and nothing. We get the notion that they are evil and maybe still around, but we don’t know how, we don’t know what science or metaphysics lies behind such long living evil. Instead, there is just the suggestion that these soldiers were so gleefully evil that this ethereal death force has kept them alive as nemeses to unsuspecting hikers.
The title of the film, which is Dod Sno in Norwegian, is soon revealed to be both irrelevant and illogical, though it is probably meant to be funny. Snow is inert, of course, it is neither alive nor dead; those notions are irrelevant to snow. But you must have the word “dead” in your title or your movie doesn’t qualify as a horror comedy. An example spreads itself fulsomly across Erlend’s chest: he’s been to the movie Braindead and got the T-shirt. This movie nerd who can quote vast tracks of dialogue and lore. Significantly, his eyes are squished by the zombies.
More important, though, is the film’s take on the nature of evil, if “evil” is really the right word. The Nazi occupiers were bad men who exploited their hostages. Fleeing, they became even more powerful, even immune to death, it seems, and lodged in an isolated territory that they continue to dominate. They seem to be killable, in that if parts are hacked off or they are buzz sawed or shot they appear to die. But in the tradition of recent horror monsters they are implacable foes who move swiftly and seem to anticipate their victims’ thinking processes when they seek to escape.
These zombies are publicized as evil, but is that really the term? When they were alive, these Nazis would probably have been defined as evil, since they were exploiting others for personal gain, but on the other hand, they were probably ideologically driven people with a view of their Norwegian subjects as inferior beings, not a pleasant idea but from their own viewpoint not evil. The more I try to think about the term the more I wonder just what it is that is supposed to be “evil” in horror films. Help comes in the form of Cynthia Freeland’s book The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror, one of a handful of academic studies of the horror genre that tries to grapple with its psychological allure. Her discussion of the conflicting Whale and Branagh Frankensteins is intriguing, because it is clear that our notions of evil are played with by the filmmakers, as in the original novel, though differently. The doctor has hubris and the creature is a tortured being set on revenge. As newer horror movies have come along they have grown cruder, crueler, with “evil” presented unambiguously, and with those trick ending codas where the seemingly vanquished evil rises again to finally triumph. These codas probably got their started with Boorman’s Deliverance, where it was a dream sequence, and which was borrowed by De Palma for Carrie. But in later films, especially those of Wes Craven, the coda tends to undermine everything that has gone before. The filmmakers may think that they are portraying the face of evil, but the result is so freed of ambiguity as to be rendered a cartoon. The struggle against evil is revealed to be useless.
Freeland raises the question of why people would willingly want to be scared, but the Craven Coda also raises the issue of why people would enjoy a movie that preaches the unconquerability of evil. In daily life, “evil” ranges across everything from the engineers of the Holocaust to bad bosses or the guy who steals your girl. In movies, or at least bad movies, evil is simply something that scares you or is presented as a monster. To me, Sigourney Weaver is civilization personified; to the Alien she is baby food. Most stories put goals in opposition, and there is the good goal and there is the bad goal and we are encouraged in commercial cinema to root for the person with the good goal. But there is a perverse part of us that seems to like evil. Some horror films are explicit about their alignment with evil, such as the Hellraiser series, a precursor to the so called “torture porn” genre in which the leather gear of the villains links them with a playacting S&M take on good versus evil. It was kind of cool in the ’70s to like the suave, confident bad guys better than the milquetoast good guys in thrillers, and Hitchcock exploited that impulse. But since then there has been a rise in villainy or evil to the point that in recent G. I. Joe movie the bad guys “win” through about 90 per cent of the movie and then again in the last sequel-whoring 30 seconds. It’s a story structure borrowed from professional wrestling ““Â don’t let the good guys win too often. The popular culture’s enlarged interest in evil almost seems to be sexual, especially when manifested in the technically unnecessary leather outfit Sienna Miller wears in G. I. Joe.
I like violence in movies and a hot chick in leather as much as the next guy, but I don’t like despair, and I fear that despair is the ultimate philosophy hidden behind splatter films. The problem with a calling card film is that the motivation is cynical, the motivation of both the characters in the movie as puppeteered by the writers, and the exploitational motivations of the moviemakers. If the filmmakers really don’t care about the ideas and implications of their story, then they only feed the fear and biases of their viewers.
So what are the splatter freaks getting out of this movie, or any gross, gory horror story? In some crazy way it might be a sense of justice. People in these movies are being punished for minor infractions. Take Drag Me to Hell. Allison Lohman is presented as a basically good person with a streak of ambition. This is a sin for which she must pay, even when the cause of the curse she receives is unfair. For the viewer the pleasure seems to reside in the spectacle of seeing someone helplessly twist and turn in a trap and pay for bad behavior so that in the real world isn’t even a venial sin. Monsters and demons! There’s no way to win with these people!
It turns out that the Nazis do have a goal, which is to get their gold back, the money being hidden in a box in Sara’s cabin. The discovery and then the opening of the box by the frivolous youths seems to lure the Nazi zombie cannibals, led by Colonel Herzog (Orjan Gamst), to the cabin, and anyone pocketing the coins risks attracting a specific attack. This leads to the coda, in which the final, surviving human being finds, on the brink of escape, that he has one of those coins in his pocket. It’s an uh-oh moment that is cynical and dispiriting ““ only the filmmakers don’t seem to know it because in their cynicism to construct a commercial enterprise they are inadvertently mocking human endeavor and hope.
Adult Swim’s Dana Snyder and FRED’s Ken Plume set out to have a literate conversation between two pals, but inevitably devolve into a verbal, and funny, free-for-all full of bickering, infighting, and the special kind of male bonding that comes from conflict expressed through the podcast medium.
Actor/comedian/raconteur Dana Snyder, you’re certainly aware, is Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s Master Shake, Squidbillies‘ Granny, Minoriteam’s Dr. Wang, and The Venture Bros.‘ Alchemist. Available for weddings and bar mitzvahs (bat availability pending), you can keep tabs on him via his website, www.eyeofthesnyder.com.
Ken Plume is the editor-in-chief here at FRED. He is a friend of Dana’s, as well as his arch-nemesis.
KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #111: Hair today – Ken & Dana return and find themselves chatting about hair replacement options, vintage men’s magazines, and Lou Ferrigno.
[CONTENT WARNING]:This podcast may contain some foul language and horribly off-color jokes. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Adult Swim’s Dana Snyder and FRED’s Ken Plume set out to have a literate conversation between two pals, but inevitably devolve into a verbal, and funny, free-for-all full of bickering, infighting, and the special kind of male bonding that comes from conflict expressed through the podcast medium.
Actor/comedian/raconteur Dana Snyder, you’re certainly aware, is Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s Master Shake, Squidbillies‘ Granny, Minoriteam’s Dr. Wang, and The Venture Bros.‘ Alchemist. Available for weddings and bar mitzvahs (bat availability pending), you can keep tabs on him via his website, www.eyeofthesnyder.com.
Ken Plume is the editor-in-chief here at FRED. He is a friend of Dana’s, as well as his arch-nemesis.
KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #110: This Man, This McNugget – Ken & Dana return with a decided inability to move on from last week’s discussion of those small, fried meat products, even if they touch upon a German excusrion and Dana’s desire to get onto a Nickelodeon show – or just be cast by all-comers, really.
[CONTENT WARNING]:This podcast may contain some foul language and horribly off-color jokes. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Quick Stop Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Please support Quick Stop by using the links below to make any impulse purchases – it helps to keep us going…)
In its 5th season, House (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP) has settled comfortably into its routine – crotchety doc, beleaguered staff, ridiculously exotic maladies, miraculous last-minute saves by crotchety doc. And so it is with the 24 episodes featured in this box set, which also sports audio commentaries and a clutch of featurettes (including one on the 100th episode).
I have been waiting years for someone to deliver something the ridiculously straightforward USB to SATA/IDE Combo Kit ($24.99) – a handy cable that attaches to any hard drive and interacts via USB. No fuss. No muss. Where has this been all my nerd life? Seriously.
Want a pair of classic TV shows cheap and in one fell swoop? Well, now you can get the complete 3 season run of Steve McQueen in Wanted: Dead Or Alive (Mill Creek Entertainment, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) and all 4 seasons of The Adventures Of Robin Hood (Mill Creek Entertainment, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP). Isn’t that quick and painless?
The History Channel continues down the path of its bizarre “Must make movie reenactments” form of documentary filmmaking with Art Of War (History Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$14.95 SRP), which weaves together the history Sun Tzu and tactics of his now – legendary book.
For a last look at what an amazing talent she was, and what we lost with her unexpected death, look no further than The Mama Cass Television Special (Infinity, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), a 1969 network ABC network special that gave Cass Elliott the spotlight, along with a clutch of special guests.
If Juno was just a bit too cutesy for you but you love that quirky vibe, then check out Adventureland (Miramax, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$44.99 SRP), starring Jesse Eisenberg as a 20-something who has to cancel his big summer vacation plans in order to earn money for grad school. His solution? Take a thankless job at a regional theme park, where he finds Em (Kristen Stewart), and has one of those movie summers you only wish you had. Bonus features include an audio commentary, featurettes, and deleted scenes.
Warner Bros. is still rolling out new additions to their on-demand “Archive Edition”, making available some catalogue titles that otherwise would sit in the vaults. Newly added to the available list is the made-for-TV 70’s horror films Bad Ronald and Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$14.95 each). Of real interest, though, is that they’ve made available all of the latter-day MGM Our Gang comedies in the 5-disc Our Gang Collection (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$34.95), whose 52 shorts are an essential companion to last year’s multi-disc Little Rascals collection of the early Hal Roach shorts.
While it was a step up from the bewilderingly awful seventh season, the eighth season of Scrubs (ABC Studios, Not Rated, DVD-$39.99 SRP) didn’t go far enough in recapturing the charm and grounding that marked its brilliant early seasons – which is a shame, as this was the swan song for the cast as it had stood from the show’s inception. Ah well, at least we have those early DVDs. The 3-disc set features all 19 episodes, plus alternate lines, webisodes, a featurette, deleted scenes, and bloopers.
Though seen as groundbreaking at the time, thirtysomething: The Complete First Season (Shout! Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$59.99 SRP) can often be a hard go, as we focus on the lives of couples that fall into the titular age category. It would be interesting to pick up with them now as fiftysomethings. The 6-disc box set features all 21 episodes, plus audio commentaries, interviews, featurettes, and more.
Sad that the nicely pleasant Chrstina Applegate series Samantha Who? (ABC Studios, Not Rated, DVD-$39.99 SRP) had to face the axe at the end of its second season, as Applegate has matured into a wonderful comedic actress. The 3-disc set contains featurettes, deleted scenes, and bloopers.
Need a RomCom fix? Or simply need to recommend a RomCom to a significant other, to keep them occupied? Then here’s this week’s recommendation – How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days (Paramount, Rated PG-13, DVD-$14.98 SRP), which stars Matthew McCounaughey and Kate Hudson as a pair of people that eventually wind up together. You know the deal. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, and a music video. A Blu-Ray edition ($29.98 SRP) is also available, with identical bonus materials.
Take The Sopranos, set it in a biker gang led by Ron Perlman, and you’ve essentially got Sons Of Anarchy (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$59.99 SRP), a new series featuring the titular gangs increasing descent into lawlessness. The 3-disc set features audio commentaries, featurettes, and deleted scenes.
David Duchovney returns as writer Hank Moody – single-father, ex-boyfriend, and a man keen on sex, liquor, and drugs – in the second season of Californication (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$42.99 SRP). The 2-disc set features all 12 episodes, plus audio commentaries, interviews, and a featurette.
Seeing as how it’s from the same producers, I can understand why Sunshine Cleaning (Anchor Bay, Rated R, DVD-$29.98 SRP) has a Little Miss Sunshine vibe about it – and by that, I mean it’s got the offbeat, quirky dramedy thing going for it. It stars Amy Adams as a single mother eager to get her son into a better school – which requires money she doesn’t have. To earn it, she drags her slacker sister (Emily Blunt) in and launches a crime scene clean-up business, along with their father (Alan Arkin). Bonus features include an audio commentary and a making-of featurette.
Even though they’re inferior to the multigenerational writing of iCarly, preteens will probably hound the parents for the first volumes of Suite Life spin-off The Suite Life On Deck and the new Sonny With A Chance (Walt Disney, Not Rated, DVD-$19.99 SRP each). Both discs contain bonus episodes.
Turns out Life (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP) had a relatively short one on NBC, as the second season turned out to be its last, as the network decided not to renew the series about a wrongfully imprisoned detective who returns to the police force with a second chance at the life he lost. The 5-disc box set contains all 21 episodes, plus audio commentaries, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.
Turn the people reading skills of and creepy skilled charm of Derren Brown into a deception expert played by Tim Roth, and you’ve got the series Lie To Me (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP), which finds Dr. Cal Lightman (Roth) solving crimes. The 4-disc set features all 13 episodes, plus a featurette and deleted scenes. A Blu-Ray edition ($59.99 SRP) is also available, with identical bonus features.
Nick Cannon stars as 19-year-old Mike Holland in American Son (Miramax, Rated R, DVD-$29.99 SRP) – a young man who has just 96 hours to say goodbye to friends & family before being shipped off to Iraq. Perhaps he’ll even change his life. It’s an interesting, if uneven, look at the rollercoaster of emotions the troops go through before a deployment. Bonus features include an audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a featurette.
Schlocky and not a terribly good adaptation of Stephen King’s original short story, but a cult following has grown up around Children Of The Corn (Anchor Bay, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.97 SRP), who are sure to pick up the high definition 25th anniversary edition, featuring an audio commentary, featurettes, interviews, galleries, and more.
Smithsonian Networks has a trio of new documentaries on tap – first up being War Stories (Smithsonian, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), which takes a look at the tales of modern service men and women. Next up is America’s Wild & Wacky (Smithsonian, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP), which takes viewers on a ride to America’s largest bike rally. Finally, there’s The Da Vinci Detective (Smithsonian, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP), which examines the mysteries of two great works of art.
Want to see a show that’s lost the plot and really doesn’t know what to do with itself anymore? Look no further than the 8th season of Smallville (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP), where the still-not-Superman Clark Kent sort of meanders around a pointless supporting cast doing vaguely-Supermany things and killing time. The 6-disc set features all 22 episodes, plus audio commentaries, deleted scenes, and a pair of featurettes.
Would you be surprised to find out that a movie with the title Fighting (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) is about fighting? Well, it does – starring Channing Tatum as a guy who turns to the world of underground bare-knuckle street fighting to make a better life for himself. Seriously. The disc includes deleted scenes. A Blu-Ray edition ($39.98 SRP) is also available, with identical bonus materials.
So there you have it… my humble suggestions for what to watch, listen to, play with, or waste money on this coming weekend. See ya next week…
Oh no! Just when you thought it was safe to hang out at the Quick Stop…
Cabin Fever (hosted by the twisted souls Brian Fitzpatrick and Aaron Poole) is the result of having too much time on your hands and access to your local community radio station.
Over the course of an hour, they manage to trawl the depths of good taste, plus throw some music in. How much more could you want from a podcast?… Quality? Oh… we didn’t think of that.
Enjoy! And we hope our cross Atlantic friends can understand the Irish accent 😉
Hugs and Kisses,
Aaron P. + Rev. Fitzy
CABIN FEVER #75: Let It Slide – The guys discuss all things musical, including more Beatles chat, amongst other stuff… and things. Apologies for the continuing (and frankly baffling) sound problems. We’re working on it, we swear!
[CONTENT WARNING]:Explicit contents! We say every naughty word you can think of. You have been warned!
Welcome to our weekly round-up of featured giveaways here at Quick Stop. Every Wednesday, we’ll present a new clutch of DVDs, books, and other cool stuff you can take a shot at winning. All you have to do is click on the graphics below to be taken to their respective contest pages. And good luck!
In conjunction with Fox Home Video, we’re giving away two (2) copies of THE SIMPSONS: SEASON 12 on DVD.
In conjunction with Warner Bros. Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of SUPERNATURAL: SEASON 4 on Blu-Ray.
In conjunction with Fox Home Video, we’re giving away two (2) copies of SONS OF ANARCHY: SEASON 1 on DVD.
In conjunction with Cartoon Network Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of TOTAL DRAMA ISLAND on DVD.
In conjunction with Warner Bros. Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of ONE TREE HILL: SEASON 6 on DVD.
[Spoiler alert: I discuss the plot of this film in detail.]
We’ve all seen the cup. “World’s Greatest Dad.” Michael Scott has a similar cup on his desk, one that reads “World’s Greatest Boss.” The genre is of course novelty shop humor, like one of those backyard chef’s barbecue bibs with funny sayings on them that offer slight mockery of the wearer as a kind of pre-apology for the food on the grill. In Bobcat Goldthwait’s new movie, World’s Greatest Dad, his fourth directorial effort after Shakes the Clown, Windy City Heat, and Sleeping Dogs Lie, the cup logo takes on a larger irony but ultimately takes the novelty humor of it very seriously indeed.
Robin Williams steps forward from his uncredited role as the mime teacher in Shakes to play Lance Clayton, an aspiring writer and high school poetry teacher. His class at school is under threat of cancellation, his ostensive girlfriend (Alexie Gilmore) seems to be more interested in their African-American colleague (Henry Simmons), and though he is an aspiring novelist, Clayton has never had anything published, while his colleague has a first time effort published in the New Yorker.
Despite all his frustrations in love and work, at least Clayton has a family of sorts, consisting of his teen age son Kyle (Daryl Sabara). We need to talk about Kyle. He’s a bit of a problem. He has turned that teenage phase of parental hate and embarrassment into a geographic age. Kyle’s mockery of his father, from Clayton’s enthusiasm about socializing with his son to his taste in music, which seems to consist solely of Bruce Hornsby, is relentless. Like a gold-digger on a date, Kyle flirts with going to a movie with Clayton only to make him a new computer monitor instead, and then abandon him in the mall. Anything Kyle doesn’t like is “queer.” Kyle has no friends at school. Even the Goth girl laughs at him when an athlete punches him in the hallway. He hates music, finds movies lame, and prefers anal pornography, which is why he needs the new monitor ““ to better see the gross images he downloads off the World Wide Web. This is a kid who takes clandestine pix of his dad’s girlfriend’s panties under the restaurant table and who then dies masturbating to them while undergoing erotic asphyxiation. David Carradine would spin kick in his grave.
Clayton is of course distressed to find the corpse of his son in such an unsavory situation. And he does what any parent would probably do ““ disguise the embarrassing death as a teen suicide, even going to the trouble of writing a suicide note. Unfortunately, the note is leaked to off the Internet, and in death the once despised Kyle becomes a James Dean like icon. In a twist not unlike a similar plot development in Atom Egoyan’s Adoration, Clayton exploits the interest in his son’s death to promote his own writing career. It begins innocently enough, as it probably did for “J. T. Leroy.” A thoughtful essay here, a poem there. But it develops into a full diary, forged by Clayton over a long weekend, a book that ends up on the bestseller list and lands Clayton a visit on a day time talk show. How can Clayton extricate himself from this dire situation? Like a Frank Capra hero, he makes a humiliating public confession, one that destroys his career and all the relationships he forged while operating under the ruse.
At first, I didn’t quite know what to make of World’s Greatest Dad. I saw it under certain distracting conditions, and on a disc whose playback seemed video-y and mis-formatted. Parts seemed good (the enjoyable satire of some of the students), parts seemed bad (the Goth girl’s laughter didn’t ring true, but was of course necessary for later plot mechanisms). Also, I am not the biggest Robin Williams fan in the world (though he turned out to be fine in the role). But as it happens, the film stuck with me like few others seen this year, probably because it seemed to strike deeply and uncompromisingly at an array of male fears and phobias.
For one thing, Dad confronts a little discussed minor aspect of American life: sometimes parents just don’t like the kids they’ve sired. It’s an issue that forms the basis for the popular 2003 novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. In that tale, parents find that they have spawned a high school mass murderer. That’s an extreme slice of a probable, if only occasional, reality, that a parent can look at a child and wonder where they hell they came from. It is, of course, only one of the 10 million fears that parents have, but Goldthwait, who also wrote the script, mines with over-the-top nimbleness. Misanthropes welcome here.
For another, Goldthwait is the American poet of sexual humiliation. He evinces exquisitely honed gradations of embarrassment, frustration, and jealousy. Clayton’s co-teacher girlfriend has an inexplicable interest in him, but a supremely explicable if unstated interest in the African-American teacher, who is a single dad with a good con going, unconscious or not. There is a perfect moment when, at the nadir of Clayton’s public humiliation after confessing to the fraud, the girlfriend runs to Option No. 2 and embraces him while both shoot daggers at Clayton. A masochist couldn’t ask for a better set-up. It’s a moment worthy of those other masterpieces of sexual humiliation, Malice, The Palm Beach Story, Shampoo, and Blue Velvet.
Still, for all Dad‘s occasional searing wit and tireless thumping on some of our deepest fears, the viewer still might wonder why American performers who otherwise appear to be successful prefer to dwell on failure and unhappiness and leave their protagonists with little if any hope at the end? Goldthwait has been a comic since he was 15, has been married (and divorced) with two children, and then dated Nikki Cox, his co-star on the sit-com Unhappily Ever After. Since then has had a seemingly successful career directing for television. For all intents and purposes, he has achieved a great deal. So then why does he mine childhood feelings and male neuroses? What does he get out of it and what are we supposed to apprehend?
If you thought about it long enough, you could posit the theory that comics distort the world. Think of Woody Allen. Way too many guys in the 1970s seeking a relationship took Allen’s comic persona as a role model, and operated under the delusion that women might actually like self-deprecating failures because such a male might seem honest. So while ordinary shlubs are flopping with chicks all over the country, the real life Woody Allen was dating models and actresses. In mocking the conventions of movie romance Allen unintentionally unleashed a new breed of male, programed to fail. Allen is neither the first nor the last. From Chaplin to Judd Apatow, comedians have trafficked in despair, yearning, failure. Comedies are usually, really, tragedies, often with grim or at least poignant endings. As genres, both tragedies and comedies deal in calamities, with tragedy, broadly speaking, focusing on the noble, and comedy on the quotidian. In Dad, though, Goldthwait has a weird, hybrid aim. He finds that true comedy, not just satire of current social conventions, is located in the deepest recesses of our primeval minds, in our obvious and shared but unstated fears, and treats a comic tale of ordinary people as if it is a high tragedy. Like the recent Observe and Report, World’s Greatest Dad is a comedy that isn’t really a comedy, but the marketers have to call it something. It’s an interesting experiment, if it is intentional (and not just my faulty interpretation), and shows ambitions far beyond . World’s Greatest Dad may not attract the cult following of Shakes the Clown, but it may will live on for those viewers who find it an unusually true comedy
SModcast is the meandering palaver of a pair of dudes whose voices are so dull, they don’t deserve to be on the radio (and, hence, aren’t). Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier are SModcast.The best thing about SModcast? It don’t cost nothing.
SModcast 93: Alive with Pleasure –
In which our heroes spend much of the time doing bad character voices and accents.
[CONTENT WARNING]SModcast features harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Listener discretion is advised.
The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Quick Stop Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Please support Quick Stop by using the links below to make any impulse purchases – it helps to keep us going…)
Yeah, so, one of my absolute favorite Disney films I their live-action/animated hybrid musical Pete’s Dragon (Walt Disney, Rated G, DVD-$29.99 SRP), which has languished for years on home video in sort of a 70’s bastard child status. Thankfully, the studio has finally seen fit to give it a nice special edition treatment, giving it a behind-the-scenes featurette, a deleted storyboard sequence, demo recordings, a quartet of promotional pop recordings, and more.
This week’s Thinkgeek recommendation is a piece of cool kit that always seems to be out of stock. It’s just that popular. However long it lasts, it’s now back in stock, so run and pick up your very own Cocktail Chemistry Set ($39.99). As then name implies, this is a cocktail set containing a quartet of shot-and-swig-worthy test tubes, an Erlenmeyer flask, a shaker, a glass mixing rod, and a metal bottle rack. Because yes – mixology is a recognized science, and now you have the kit to prove it.
Seeing as how my nephews are addicted to Nickelodeon (particularly the yellow crack that is Spongebob), it’s inevitable that I’d have to see the programming on offer. One of the shows that I actually enjoy quite a bit – and believe is just as well-scripted as the sitcoms on network TV, better even – is a favorite of my 5-year-old nephew, iCarly (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$26.98 SRP). I’m sure that the Season 2, Volume 1 DVD will get plenty of plenty of play. The 2-disc set contains 11 episodes (including an extended cut of “iSaw Him First” and the feature-length “iGo To Japan”), plus a pair of featurettes.
I can’t be the only one who was completely blindsided by the announcement that the 4th season of Everybody Hates Chris (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$39.99 SRP) would be the show’s last. A victim of a shoddy network with no vision, I was a fan of the fictionalized tales of Chris Rock’s NYC childhood, and its cast in particular. This 4-disc set contains all 22 episodes, plus audio commentaries, webisodes, featurettes, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.
If you’ve ever watched the UK series Skins and thought to yourself “My teenage years were nothing like that sex party bacchanal,” then The Inbetweeners (Channel 4, Not Rated, £29.98 SRP) is the show for you, because its motley quartet of teens that live awkward, banal, unintentionally funny reality the majority of us experienced. It’s like a Brit Freaks & Geeks – and there’s no higher praise I can give it. The box set contains both Series 1 & 2, plus audio commentaries, documentaries, video diaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, and bloopers.
Well, now that we’ve reached the 12th season of The Simpsons (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP), we’re fully into the territory of seasons that were a very pale, quite sad imitation of the show’s former brilliance. The characters have now veered sharply into slapstick, sacrificing the balance of real/cartoon comedy that marked the show’s earlier high notes. Now, it’s easy jokes and an overwhelming number of them self-referential. Sad, really. Still, these sets are at least still worth picking up for the audio commentaries and featurettes that remain packed to the rafters.
It’s double-crosses, mysteries, and intrigue in The Beast (Sony, Not Rated, DVD-$39.95 SRP), which stars Patrick Swayze as FBI vet Charles Barker – a rather unorthodox expert in undercover operations who believes an internal FBI conspiracy may be afoot, who’s also saddled with a new partner who’s got an ulterior motive. I don’t believe it got a second season pick-up, which is a shame as it’s looking like it will most likely be Swayze’s swan song, and it hadn’t quite hit its stride. The 3-disc set contains all 13 episodes.
Like most modern horror remakes, the new Last House On The Left (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) tries just too damn hard for its scares, thoroughly eliminating any of the ghoulishly low-rent charm of the original for the sake of slick “gore scares” and atmosphere-less cinematography. A shame. Bonus features include a featurette and deleted scenes. A Blu-Ray edition ($39.98 SRP) is also available, with identical bonus features.
I know there are devotees who think it’s the second coming of Undeclared, but I have yet to find the appeal of Greek (ABC Family, Not Rated, DVD-$39.99 SRP). Still, there’s a fanbase out there, and they’re sure to be picking up the third season set, which contains audio commentaries, a 20 questions featurette with the cast, and a blooper reel.
So, in short, Total Drama Island (Cartoon Network, Not Rated, DVD-$34.99 SRP) is an animated parody of reality shows which finds 22 teens sent to a remote, run-down Canadian summer camp who must endure inane challenges and hope to avoid elimination if they hope to win a grand prize. Sound confusing? Well, check out the complete first season set and all will be made clear. Bonus features include the reunion special and cast interviews.
After an awkward, sometimes rudderless second season, things were largely back on track in the 3rd season of Dexter (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$42.99 SRP), as a new relationship with the Miami DA office leads to some interesting developments in Dexter’s modus operandi. The 4-disc box set contains all 12 episodes, plus interviews and the first 2 episodes of The United States Of Tara. A Blu-Ray edition ($57.99 SRP) is also available, with identical bonus material.
The second season of Gossip Girl (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP) finds the East Siders in their senior year of high school, applying for colleges and spinning in hormonal circles. The 7-disc set contains all 25 episodes, plus deleted scenes, featurettes, webisodes, and a gag reel.
It’s not exactly intellectually stimulating, but using the beautiful high-definition of Blu-Ray to take aerial journeys around the world is certainly worth a look see to me, and that’s exactly what you get with both Visions Of Britain & Ireland and Visions Of Italy (Acorn, Not Rated, Blu-Ray $49.99 SRP each) – high-def aerial tours.
After her ridiculously self-confident appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, I was at least curious about Hannah Montana: The Movie (Walt Disney, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$44.99 SRP). Not curious enough to go see it, mind you – I’m not its audience, and everything I’ve seen of the show has been awkwardly written. Still, there are Hannah/Miley fans aplenty who will snap up the 3-disc Blu-Ray set, which contains an audio commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, and bloopers, as well as a standard DVD copy of the flick.
You may remember that I heaped heavy praise upon Hot Toys’ Iron Man Mark III a few weeks back, as I was utterly delighted by its movie-perfect sculpting and snazzy light-up features. Well, it may be hard to believe, but I think I like the Hot Toys 12″ Iron Man Mark II ($159.99) even more. While the sculpt is nearly identical (save for the addition of the rivets), the faux-polished metal paint job is a wonder to behold – it really does capture the look to a “t”. The light feature is identical as well, featuring LED-lit eyes, chest, and repulsors. There’s also a swappable head featuring the in-helmet likeness of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark. In the pics below, you’ll also notice the inclusion of the LED “trophy” heart, which is also screen accurate. Really, you need to head over to Sideshow and get this before you regret missing it.
So there you have it… my humble suggestions for what to watch, listen to, play with, or waste money on this coming weekend. See ya next week…
Adult Swim’s Dana Snyder and FRED’s Ken Plume set out to have a literate conversation between two pals, but inevitably devolve into a verbal, and funny, free-for-all full of bickering, infighting, and the special kind of male bonding that comes from conflict expressed through the podcast medium.
Actor/comedian/raconteur Dana Snyder, you’re certainly aware, is Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s Master Shake, Squidbillies‘ Granny, Minoriteam’s Dr. Wang, and The Venture Bros.‘ Alchemist. Available for weddings and bar mitzvahs (bat availability pending), you can keep tabs on him via his website, www.eyeofthesnyder.com.
Ken Plume is the editor-in-chief here at FRED. He is a friend of Dana’s, as well as his arch-nemesis.
KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #109: Vomit Luge – Ken & Dana return with a chat about popcorn, a little bit of job history, and then dive full-on into a tale of a medical nature.
[CONTENT WARNING]:This podcast may contain some foul language and horribly off-color jokes. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
LONDON – The Mutant Chronicles unleashes cannibalistic humanoids into a steam punk World War I world. The movie features Thomas Jane (Hung), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Devon Aoki (Sin City), Sean Pertwee (Doomsday) and John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich) as the only defense against these ungodly creatures in the CGI enhanced environment. Can Aoki cut them all down with her cool sword?
Director Simon Hunter took nearly two years to adapt the role playing game into a cinematic universe. You can get great sense of what he undertook for his first major motion picture on the Two-disc Collector’s Edition DVD and the Blu-ray recently released by Magnolia Home Entertainment. I had a chance to swap questions via email with Hunter. Here’s the Q&A action:
JOE COREY: Have you played the game?
SIMON HUNTER: Yes I have played the game and enjoyed it very much – the world of Mutant Chronicles is huge and complex.
JOE: What was your prime concern when you were directing scenes? How did you keep the big image in mind while creating the live action elements?
HUNTER: To try and keep the audience’s interest – this is hard when there is so much of the story to set up.
JOE: What do you as a director provide the actors so they can know what you need when they are working in front of a green screen? Did you provide rough ups of the final frame?
HUNTER: We had almost no pre-visuals for the cast to see so I tended to explain orally what we would see in the final movie.
JOE: How was it mentally for you to spend 16 months in post-production making the image on the film take form? Was taking so much time a shock after working on commercials?
HUNTER: Hard mentally as you deal with every single shot – each shot becomes a discussion point and is open to debate both financially and artistically. It was a long struggle. Commercials are over so quickly and that is often a good thing as it gives you perspective.
JOE: Is it strange to hear someone say, “We can fix that in post” and know that it can be?
HUNTER: I am never sure about this – what you can’t do is fix the story in post – not really – you can remove boring scenes but if you keep doing that you get to the stage where the story will not make any sense. You have to get it right before you start shooting. So you can fix mistakes visually in post, like a microphone or airplane coming into shot – but you cannot magic an action scene out of the trim bin on the computer. You have to get the script right and shoot it. Its like building a house, the designers plans are the most important – all the lovely paint you apply later is just paint.
JOE: How did you decide on what extra moments went into your director’s cut?
HUNTER: The film was a hard balance – I wanted to make sure people understood the world and the first cut explained too much – we had an early cut very similar to the directors cut but were worried people would not understand it. The balance over speed and plot explanation was wrong and I wanted to correct that.
JOE: What’s your favorite bonus feature?
HUNTER: The documentary – its a real behind the scenes feature length doc – it really shows the struggle!
JOE: Which of the actors looked best as a mutant?
HUNTER: There were only about six Mutants – they all looked great!
JOE: What was your favorite memory of Thomas Jane?
HUNTER: So many – working with Thomas and Ron and all the cast really was the highlight of the film making experience for me.
JOE: What makes Ron Perlman so effective in effect heavy films?
HUNTER: He acts so well with or without greenscreen – he understands the process and is a true gentleman.
JOE: Can you discuss Devon Aoki’s sword play. Were you nervous of her taking a hit in the “Face of Lancome?”
HUNTER: She can move with a sword like no other person!
JOE: Do you remember when Sean Pertwee’s father was Dr. Who?
HUNTER: Yes of course I used to watch it avidly when I was growing up – I’d love to see a new Worzel Gummage with Sean – he would be great in it!
JOE: In America, we have a cruel image of a headmaster thanks to Pink Floyd’s the Wall and “If.” What was it like growing up as the son of a headmaster?
HUNTER: Not much fun – but I did have the school to myself when everyone went on holiday!
JOE: Is your next project going to involve such a long post-production?
HUNTER: I have about three projects that are fairly well advanced and one of them has very heavy post the other two do not.
SPEEDY DELIVERY
Sometimes you have to go to the postman to receive the goods. In this case it was a chance to hang out with Mr. McFeely. Since 1968, he’d been making the rounds of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood with his cry of “Speedy Delivery!”
I borrowed a small child that looked like she could be my own and scooted over to the Parkwood Library in Durham. The meeting room filled up with a nice crowd of pre-schoolers and a few old timers that remembered McFeely’s Speedy Delivery promise before FedEx was founded. McFeely arrived in his uniform and was ready to meet the kids. In this world of massive Disney glitter shows aimed at overwhelming little tykes, he asked if any of the kids wanted to sing a song for the group. He took the time to ask every kid their name. This time together wasn’t just about him. He was happy to finally have a chance to meet his TV friends. It was a sharing moment with McFeely.
This wasn’t a solo act. McFeely brought a few friends to say hello to the kids including puppets for X the Owl and King Friday. The real treat was getting to see Donkey Hodie in person. The little kids got a kick out of shaking hands with the puppets. He read a book about his character guessing what’s in packages that was written by Fred Rogers. Then we sang more songs that he enjoyed from the series. It was a relaxing time with him.
During a question and answer segment, he mentioned his recent trip to Los Angeles included dinner with Spongebob Squarepants…well it was Tom Kenny – the voice of Spongebob. The kids were thrilled that these two icons had broken bread. That ought to be the follow up to My Dinner With Andre and My Brunch with Blassie.
When actor David Newell landed the part of Mr. McFeely, he thought the gig would last one year. Over 40 years later, he’s still playing the part of America’s favorite postman that likes delivering the mail (unlike Cliff from Cheers). He wasn’t even 30 when he was cast in the role that made him look like he was already for early retirement. Now he’s 70 and spry while making his rounds of libraries and events to make sure kids know that Mr. Rogers’ lessons about community and friendship are still vital in the 21st Century. You can learn more about him in the documentary Speedy Delivery. It focuses on Newell’s lifetime role as Mr. McFeely and his work as director of public relations for the company that controls the Mr. Rogers episodes. It can be picked up on DVD at http://www.speedydeliverymovie.com.
Since the passing of Fred Rogers in 2003, Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood has been getting pushed off the PBS daily schedule in favor of the more marketable Barney, Curious George and Dragon Tales. McFeely gave the good news that soon the PBS website will be streaming several of the 895 episodes for parents who want Fred Rogers to be their kid’s TV friend.
He wrapped up his visit by signing autographs for all who wanted it. During this time, I asked him about the bogus internet email that claimed Mr. Rogers was a Navy Seal during the Vietnam War and had to wear his cardigan to hide his tattoo covered arms. Mr. McFeely pointed out that Fred Rogers was doing the show during the Vietnam war. He wasn’t covered in tattoos. He suspected that this tale evolved over a promotional photo of Mr. Rogers in a scuba suit from an underwater neighborhood special. The rumors that Lady Elaine Fairchilde is Dick Cheney remains under investigation.
What was interesting is that for a character that constantly said, “Speedy Delivery,” Mr. McFeely knew how to take time with kids on that afternoon in Durham. As I said good bye to the man who had been a part of my life since I could walk, I felt proud that we were TV friends.
TV FRIENDS
After my time with Mr. McFeely, I kept thinking about him being my TV friend. Who on the TV screen really is worthy of our TV friendship? Is anyone on MTV, VH1 or 99 percent of the reality shows really want our TV friendship? Or do they merely imagine themselves as superstars and us as their adoring (and always forgiving) fans? The closest show on TV to Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood is Food Network’s Ace of Cakes since it is the Village of Make Believe inside Duff’s bakery. Duff ought to wear a cardigan and sneakers when he arrives at Charm City. Would you want to be a TV friend with anyone appearing on Brett Michael’s Rock of Love? Or a Bridezilla? Or anyone on Bravo’s Real Housewives series? TV now gives a platform for the worst of humanity to blind us with their dim bulbs.
Which leads me to a new batch of competitors on Dancing With the Stars These people want you to imagine yourself as their TV friends because they need you to call and vote for them so they can make fat dollars. But are they even worth dialing a toll-free number? The producers selected a group of 16 Reality Retreads and Floundering Fools to prance for our entertainment.
Donny Osmond gets to see if he can go beyond Marie. This means more Osmond facetime on Entertainment Tonight. Rumor has it that Jimmy Osmond is slated for 2013. Let’s hope Mayan Doomsday doesn’t destroy his comeback campaign. Debi Mazar might finally get noticed after being “I’ve seen that actress in another film – who is she?”
There’s going to be a lot of rehab mantras repeated backstage with Aaron Carter, Kelly Osbourne and Michael Irvin. If you want to sabotage their footwork, sit in the audience and waggle a coke spoon. Chuck Liddell continues his trek from former UFC champ to dunking booth clown. Kathy Ireland will remind us that she once had an acting career that peaked when her film was molested on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Model Joanna Krupa’s entire career is based on ripping Terrell Owens a new one on the unbearable Superstars series. Maybe she’ll tear Melissa Joan Hart a new one by saying her mechanical cat has more grace doing a tango. Macy Gray gets a chance to revive her career after she killed it on an MTV award show by wearing her album’s release date as a decoration on her dress. Singer Mya will also remind us that she once was a major force in music before iPods. Why exactly is the son of George Hamilton getting star status? The guy was on a single episode of Oz. Lenny the guy who hangs around the Today Show is a bigger star than this Ashley Hamilton. Donald Trump wouldn’t cast Ashley. And he wouldn’t even think twice about grabbing Iron Chef America‘s Mark Dacascos, Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin and snowboarder Louie Vito. I know grandma is going to go nuts seeing Vito. “Is that the Flying Tomato?” she’ll keep asking us.
Last season there were a lot of injuries. My hope is that former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay gets rolled off the dance floor in full traction. This guy is scum. ABC ought to feel shame for casting him in hopes of tapping the Fox News crowd. Why not let Squeaky Fromme on the show? She’s out of prison and ready to rehab her image as Manson Girl. There’s no point in voting him off early. He’s got to stick around long enough to require hip and knee replacement surgery when he bites it during his Hip Hop Freestyle.
WORST TV FRIEND
Do not buy the Heidi Montag Playboy magazine. Let Hugh Hefner know that we won’t accept this sort of behavior in the pages of his magazine. We have to prevent more faux-stars from ripping us off. If a semi-famous person wants to pose for Playboy, she better strip down and show us her landing strip. You want to pose arty without showing your naughty bits, haul your plastic surgery enhanced ass over to Maxim or Cat Fancy.
FORE RINGS
What’s the point of golf in the Olympics? Do we really need to turn the Olympics into another tour stop for the pros? Haven’t we learned the lesson from tennis? The court action was a “well that’s nice” event. When is the last time a tennis pro was hyped for their Olympic performance? It’s merely another piece of hardware in their collection. Here’s the rule of how a sport should be allowed into the Olympics: will the Gold Medal be the pinnacle of an athlete’s competition accomplishments? If it’s just another nice honor like winning the Alpo Match Point Open; the sport has no business inside the five ring circus. If Tiger Woods burns his green sports coats from the Masters and melts down his British Open jugs for a chance to win a Gold Medal, then the golf should be in the Olympics.
DVD SHELF
Californication: The Second Season reminds us that David Duchovny is not a happy man no matter how happy things should be. At the end of season one, he’d regained the love of his ex-gal (Ronin‘s Natascha McElhone). They were braced for a great time. However things go extremely wrong. She has Hank get a vasectomy and the snip cuts something inside him. During a wild party, Hank thinks he’s going down on Natascha in a dark room. But he’s picked the wrong door. However this bad moment turns out to be a good career choice as he hooks up with renowned rock producer Lew Ashby (Battlestar Galactica‘s Callum Keith Rennie). The musical madman wants David to write his biography. It’s a good job since he needs something to take his mind off his novel being stolen by Madeline Zima. Should it be mentioned that she ends up boffing Lew? Pamela Adlon (the voice of Bobby Hill) goes on a coke bender that sounds like a psychotic King of the Hill episode. David also discovers that before he was snipped, he knocked up one of his guest stars from season one. The Showtime series didn’t have a sophomore slump. Season 3 starts Sept. 28.
Simpsons: Season 12 finally gives the Comic Book Guy his due with the honor of the box cover. It’s the best box cover. Ever! In case you’re curious, Season 12 took place back in 2000. “Treehouse of Horror XI” features “G-g-Ghost D-D-Dad” spoof of the Bill Cosby turkey, “Night of the Dolphin” and “Scary Tales Can Come True.” “A Tale of Two Springfields” has the city getting divided by a new area code. The only ting that can bring the town together is a massive concert by The Who. John Entwistle was still alive to voice his part in this Homer wasteland. “The Computer Wore Menace Shoes” pays tribute to The Prisoner. “HOMR” makes the dad smart when they remove a crayon that’s been stuck in his brain. “Simpsons Tall Tales” makes the family ride the rails with hobos. They give us the true Americana stories. The boxset is loaded up with bonus features. Every episode has a commentary track. The Comic Guy even gets his own special. There’s even vintage Simpsons ads from Butterfingers and Burger King. Here’s a little clip to remember Homer’s love from 2000.
Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season finally lets me see the show since ABC did weird scheduling stuff after it took the show over from NBC. This will be remembered as the time that Zach Braff grew his Tubb’s beard. The big change at the start is Courteney Cox taking over as chief of medicine. Don’t cry for Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins) since he’s hanging out eating free muffins in the hospital coffeeshop. Human Giant‘s Aziz Ansari is part of the new interns. He doesn’t stick around long since he’s got to take his smug distracted jerk routine to NBC’s Parks and Recreation. “My ABC’s” is my favorite episode since it features cameos from Oscar the Grouch, Grover and Elmo. Oscar gets to hang with the Janitor. The two part “My Finale” was supposed to wrap up Braff’s role on the show. However there will be a 9th season with Zach back for a few more shows to create a transition. They’re making Scrubs into the American Doctor In the House.
Samantha Who?: The Complete Second and Final Season leaves me asking what happened to this show? How did it go from the top rated sitcom to canceled in barely a 18 months? The easy answer is that the network removed it from it’s rating partner Dancing With The Stars and stuck it with a batch of failed sitcoms. Christina Applegate is Samantha. She was hit by a car and developed amnesia. She discovers what an evil person she was in her former life. The quality of the sophomore outing is up their with the freshman year. “The Rock Star” has her dating John Taylor of Duran Duran fame. The wife was upset that the show was canceled since it meant for the first time in 9 years, she couldn’t see Melissa McCarthy on the little screen. She was TV’s original Sookie before True Blood. While the box lists only 17 episodes, there are 3 episodes in the bonus feature section. At least with both seasons on DVD, you won’t have to forget Samantha Who?
NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Services): The Sixth Season keeps David McCallum (The Man From UNCLE) busy tracking down evildoers. However this new season starts off with Mark Harmon and his crack team split up by their new boss. There’s a mole in their midst. There’s also plenty of navy murders, suicides and major crimes. “Capitol Offense” has them dragged onto a case by a Senator. They discover the ugliness of politics in a military case. “Heartland” has the team investigate a case in Harmon’s old town. His past is explored where we find out his dad is really the dad from The Waltons (Ralph Waite). The series last year received another bump in the ratings and became the #5 show on TV even when it ran opposite of American Idol. NCIS will be investigating how the Naval Academy was slaughtered by West Point.
The Untouchables: Season 3, Volume 1 unloads more tales from the Tommygun era. Eliot Ness (Robert Stack) and his crack unit keep busting up the underworld operations of Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon). The stars come out to play gangsters in these 16 episodes on 4 DVDs. “The Troubleshooter” has Peter Falk (Columbo) destroying Ness’ public image. “Power Play” makes Carrol O’Connor (Archie Bunker) an evil bail bondsman. Telly Savalas (Kojak) is the named star of “The Matt Bass Scheme. Telly’s come up with a great way to deal in bootleg liquor. “Loophole” is a triple talent threat with Jack Klugman (Quincy), Martin Landau (Mission: Impossible) and Gavin MacLeod (The Love Boat). That’s enough for a night of 100 stars, but they throw in Joe Turkel (The Shining) as a goon. “The Canada Run” goes fast with Simon Oakland (The Nightstalker) using the church to assist in his smuggling operation. “The Gang War” has Victor Buono (Batman‘s King Tut) tangle with Nitti over smuggled liquor. “The Death Tree” bleeds from Charles Bronson taking out his competition. This is another stellar batch of episodes from The Untouchables. Season 3, Volume 2 is slated for release on Nov. 10.
Greek: Chapter Three makes me wonder why I despised frat houses back in college. Maybe if I went to Cyprus-Rhodes University, the idea of being spanked by classmates with a wooden paddle would be so appealing. Since the show airs on ABC Family, it’s probably safe to guess that the tales I remember from frat houses will never be covered. The channel might allows the characters to explore drinking, sex and homosexuality, but they draw the line at putting body parts inside cows. That was the rumored pledge highlight of one frat at my old school. Chapter Three covers the first 10 episodes of the second season. We get more fun from Casey and Rusty, the siblings that embrace the Pan-Hellenic life. There’s a casino night in the hopes of bailing one of the kids out of debt. Plenty of confused love crops up. Ultimately this is the show that fans of High School Musical can use as their safety school for a major in entertainment. Season 4 starts August 31.
Julia stars Tilda Swinton (Oscar winner for Michael Clayton) as a drunk woman going on a cart ride to hell. What’s remarkable is that after two decades of either being a complete ice queen or David Bowie’s sister from Man Who Fell to Earth, Swinton is carnal and look female. Although she’s not the most likable of lushes. She’s constantly get sloshed and banging anyone who drags her home. She gets a sense of direction when she agrees to help a neighbor that’s in Alcoholics Anonymous get her son back from a rich possessive grandfather. Tilda decides that it’s not good enough to reunite mother and child. She wants to unite herself with the rich grandfather’s bank account. This is not an happy uplifting film. For people used to her cold gaze in Chronicles of Narnia and Constantine this film will remind us that she’s not an androgynous android sent from the future to confuse us. But we still can’t let her near the children since she’ll use duct tape on them. Ouch.
Surveillance is Jennifer Lynch’s comeback film that should leave you confused and frightened on every level. Two FBI agents (Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond) arrive in a small town to investigate a grizzly murder and a car wreck involving serial killers. The killers wear latex masks so everyone is a bit of a suspect. Everybody has something to deny during their talks with the law except for little Stephanie (Ryan Simpkins). Even the cops have issues that shouldn’t end up in police reports. French Stewart (Third Rock From The Sun and Clamato ads) is an officer who instead of setting up speed traps prefers to shoot the tires of speeding cars. You won’t think of him as an alien goofball after this film. Pullman and Ormond are perfect as the FBI agent who want to know everything. They make the queasy seem natural in their eyes. It’s good to see Jennifer Lynch making a movie after getting mocked too hard for Boxing Helena. If you only see one film filled with psychotics this year, let it be Surveillance.
Beyond The Ordinary – T.V. Sets brings the pilot episodes to four series that have futuristic or supernatural themes. Star Trek: The Original Series has “The Man Trap.” Dr. McCoy discovers his old flame might be related to a monster that uses sucker fingers to work the salt out of humans. What are the odds that Kirk’s going to put the moves on her cause you know those toupees are so salty. Medium has Patricia Arquette getting a vision of a murder in Texas. It might have just been the Dallas Mavericks choking their season to death. Joan of Arcadia has a young girl getting message from God. It’s a fun series that lasted only two years. God couldn’t control the People Meters. 4400 has 4400 people that were abducted by aliens return to Earth. They now have special powers. The US government isn’t sure what to do with these folks. Are they puppets for aliens? 4400 lasted 4 seasons. Coincidence? If you enjoy any of the shows, you’ll be able to catch up on the entire series on DVD.
Crime and Punishment – T.V. Sets presents four cop shows from the past and present on a single DVD. Hawaii Five-0 gets represented by “Full Five Fathom.” Kevin McCarthy has been killing women and dumping their bodies off the islands. It’s up to McGarrett and his crew to uncover this murder scam. As Jack Lord would say, “Be there, aloha.” The Streets of San Francisco‘s “The Thirty-Year Pin” reminds us at how horrible health care was in 1972. A cop gets shot during a robbery. The “EMT” crew consists of two guys that look like bank guards, a stretcher and an ambulance that looks like delivers potato chips. The cop has a bullet in his gut and these EMTs don’t even try to patch him up, give him CPR or an IV drip. They aren’t even in constant radio contact with the E.R. The show itself has Karl Malden hunting down the shooter since he’s tight with the cop. He drags Michael Douglas around the Bay. CSI:NY brings the franchise to Manhattan. Gary Sinise and folks have to hunt down a killer. The only witness can only communicate through blinking. The episode is remarkably called “Blink.” Dexter rewrote cop shows. Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is the Miami police’s blood splatter expert. He’s also the area’s resident serial killer. He only kills guilty people who have cheated to escape justice. The Showtime series makes you root for what would normally be the bad guy. Far as buying the season DVDs, both Dexter and CSI:NY are up to date in season sets. Hawaii Five-O is up to 6 of the 12 available in boxsets. Season 7 gets released on Oct. 20. It’s been a while since they completed the second season of Streets. Should it be a good sign that they continue the series on DVD with this plug.
Meteor reminds us that we deserve to be doomed when Christopher Lloyd is the only scientist that can spot a meteor heading straight toward the Earth. However Lloyd doesn’t play his role for laughs. He looks like a scientist that could get real funding for his experiments unlike his time on Back To The Future. Even with a sensible look, he can’t get a real response thanks to government inaction. The apocalypse must be certified in triplicate with stamps for 14 agencies. This mini-series is packed with enough stars to make the impending doom seem entertaining. Marla Sokoloff (The Practice), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), Stacy Keach (Titus) and Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) almost make this feel like a disaster filled Love Boat. The destruction when the smaller rocks start hitting the earth hold up compared to an Irwin Allen production. Can we stop the hammer of the Gods from striking California? What I learned from Meteor is that if you fear a massive meteor shower; the best thing to do is move to the other side of the Earth.
Grey’s Anatomy: Complete Fifth Season, More Moments seemed to have as much drama on Entertainment Tonight as the actual show. Everybody kept waiting for the upset producers to finally kill off Katherine Heigl after she mouthed off about the writers with her “I’m a Movie star” attitude. T.R. Knight split the show before his contract ran out. The saddest part of the season wasn’t Heigl’s battle with cancer, but Brooke Smith (Silence of the Lambs) finally getting to join the main cast after two seasons in a recurring role. They made her the lesbian lover of Sara Ramirez. Somehow female doctor on female doctor action didn’t sit well with the devoted and she was sent packing before Christmas. There was rumors that the producers were going to “soften” the relationship by making it a threesome with a guy. That would have been a great Christmas gift. The DVD has extended episodes, deleted scenes and a Behind-the-scenes documentary on the 100th episode.
Private Practice: The Complete Second Season gives the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off a chance to grow after the strike shortened debut season. Kate Walsh thrives after she splits the hospital life for Oceanside Wellness Centre in sunny Los Angeles. There’s a touch of reality as the Centre seems to be struggling in this harsh economy. There’s fear of bankruptcy. But no matter how bad the financial crunch gets, Kate and her friends always have time for a good romp in the bed. Just cause she’s not on Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t mean she has to remain celibate like Marcus Welby. “Serving Two Masters” has two pregnant women who don’t know they share the same husband. This must happen a lot in a city with two NBA teams. There’s crossover action with Grey’s Anatomy so the devoted will have to buy both boxsets. The bonus features include deleted scenes, bloopers and a special piece on Audra McDonald.
Oh no! Just when you thought it was safe to hang out at the Quick Stop…
Cabin Fever (hosted by the twisted souls Brian Fitzpatrick and Aaron Poole) is the result of having too much time on your hands and access to your local community radio station.
Over the course of an hour, they manage to trawl the depths of good taste, plus throw some music in. How much more could you want from a podcast?… Quality? Oh… we didn’t think of that.
Enjoy! And we hope our cross Atlantic friends can understand the Irish accent 😉
Hugs and Kisses,
Aaron P. + Rev. Fitzy
CABIN FEVER #74: Name That Tune – The boys spend the first half of the show discussing wedding bands, The Beatles, and recent movie releases, and the second half being befuddled by listener-sent news stories. Just a typical Cabin Fever episode, really. Music provided this week by the excellent Chubb Rock and Wordsmith.
[CONTENT WARNING]:Explicit contents! We say every naughty word you can think of. You have been warned!
Welcome to our weekly round-up of featured giveaways here at Quick Stop. Every Wednesday, we’ll present a new clutch of DVDs, books, and other cool stuff you can take a shot at winning. All you have to do is click on the graphics below to be taken to their respective contest pages. And good luck!
In conjunction with Nickelodeon Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of iCARLY: SEASON 2 VOLUME 1 on DVD.
In conjunction with Warner Bros. Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of SMALLVILLE: SEASON 8 on DVD.
In conjunction with Shout Factory Home Video, we’re giving away five (5) copies of THIRTYSOMETHING: SEASON 1 on DVD.
In conjunction with Fox Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of LIE TO ME: SEASON 1 on DVD.
In conjunction with Universal Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of FIGHTING on DVD.
In conjunction with MGM Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of BOOT CAMP on DVD.
In two separate cars, four boys and three girls drive to a rendezvous in a Norwegian ski cabin. The girls are Hanna (Charlotte Frogner), her cousin, the squeaky voiced Chris (Jenny Skavlan), and Hanna’s friend Liv (Evy Kasseth Rosten). That’s all we know about them, though it helps to know that Norway is one of the richest countries in the world ““ as a general background to the kids’ leisure time activities ““ and that it is the Bethlehem of death metal. The boys are Martin (Vegar Hoel), a medical student with a problematic phobia of blood, Erlend (Jeppe Beck Laursen), the requisite horror movie buff, Roy (Stig Frode Henriksen), who is characterized as the “horniest guy north of the Arctic Circle” though we don’t really see much evidence of that character trait in the subsequent narrative, and who seems to speak a dialect different from the others, and Vegard (Lasse Valdal), the cute one, whose girlfriend Sara (Ane Dahl Torp) is skiing cross country to meet them all at the cabin. Unfortunately, as we the viewers know from the opening sequence but the characters don’t, Sara is already dead, having been attacked by some unknown assailants with apparent cannibalistic inclinations.
The nature of the horror is first alluded to by a lone traveller who comes into the cabin for a coffee. He is openly contemptuous of the youngsters, and also tells them a campfire story about the menace lurking in the mountains. It seems that during World War II, a German occupying force of 300 men called Einsatz controlled the village of Oksfjord, which was important to the war effort because of its conveniently placed harbor. These Nazis were unusually cruel to the villagers. As the war went against the Germans, the soldiers, led by a Colonel Herzog, raided the houses and stole as much gold and coins as they could find. Finally, the villagers rose up against their oppressors and, using various farm tools, attacked the Nazis, who fled to the mountains of Istind with their ill-gotten gains, and where they presumably froze to death. This narrative is told in that close slow-track-in trick that signifies to viewers that something of great or scary importance is being related. It’s also a story that sets up the classic “dangerous village” premise of so many horror films, An American Werewolf in London and Kill, Baby … Kill! being two varied examples. Not that we ever see any of the village.
These zombies are publicized as evil, but is that really the term? When they were alive, these Nazis would probably have been defined as evil, since they were exploiting others for personal gain, but on the other hand, they were probably ideologically driven people with a view of their Norwegian subjects as inferior beings, not a pleasant idea but from their own viewpoint not evil. The more I try to think about the term the more I wonder just what it is that is supposed to be “evil” in horror films. Help comes in the form of Cynthia Freeland’s book The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror, one of a handful of academic studies of the horror genre that tries to grapple with its psychological allure. Her discussion of the conflicting Whale and Branagh Frankensteins is intriguing, because it is clear that our notions of evil are played with by the filmmakers, as in the original novel, though differently. The doctor has hubris and the creature is a tortured being set on revenge. As newer horror movies have come along they have grown cruder, crueler, with “evil” presented unambiguously, and with those trick ending codas where the seemingly vanquished evil rises again to finally triumph. These codas probably got their started with Boorman’s Deliverance, where it was a dream sequence, and which was borrowed by De Palma for Carrie. But in later films, especially those of Wes Craven, the coda tends to undermine everything that has gone before. The filmmakers may think that they are portraying the face of evil, but the result is so freed of ambiguity as to be rendered a cartoon. The struggle against evil is revealed to be useless.
Freeland raises the question of why people would willingly want to be scared, but the Craven Coda also raises the issue of why people would enjoy a movie that preaches the unconquerability of evil. In daily life, “evil” ranges across everything from the engineers of the Holocaust to bad bosses or the guy who steals your girl. In movies, or at least bad movies, evil is simply something that scares you or is presented as a monster. To me, Sigourney Weaver is civilization personified; to the Alien she is baby food. Most stories put goals in opposition, and there is the good goal and there is the bad goal and we are encouraged in commercial cinema to root for the person with the good goal. But there is a perverse part of us that seems to like evil. Some horror films are explicit about their alignment with evil, such as the Hellraiser series, a precursor to the so called “torture porn” genre in which the leather gear of the villains links them with a playacting S&M take on good versus evil. It was kind of cool in the ’70s to like the suave, confident bad guys better than the milquetoast good guys in thrillers, and Hitchcock exploited that impulse. But since then there has been a rise in villainy or evil to the point that in recent G. I. Joe movie the bad guys “win” through about 90 per cent of the movie and then again in the last sequel-whoring 30 seconds. It’s a story structure borrowed from professional wrestling ““Â don’t let the good guys win too often. The popular culture’s enlarged interest in evil almost seems to be sexual, especially when manifested in the technically unnecessary leather outfit Sienna Miller wears in G. I. Joe.
In its 5th season, 
I have been waiting years for someone to deliver something the ridiculously straightforward 
Want a pair of classic TV shows cheap and in one fell swoop? Well, now you can get the complete 3 season run of Steve McQueen in 
The History Channel continues down the path of its bizarre “Must make movie reenactments” form of documentary filmmaking with 
For a last look at what an amazing talent she was, and what we lost with her unexpected death, look no further than 
If Juno was just a bit too cutesy for you but you love that quirky vibe, then check out 
Warner Bros. is still rolling out new additions to their on-demand “Archive Edition”, making available some catalogue titles that otherwise would sit in the vaults. Newly added to the available list is the made-for-TV 70’s horror films 
While it was a step up from the bewilderingly awful seventh season, the eighth season of 
Though seen as groundbreaking at the time, 
Sad that the nicely pleasant Chrstina Applegate series 
Need a RomCom fix? Or simply need to recommend a RomCom to a significant other, to keep them occupied? Then here’s this week’s recommendation – 
Take The Sopranos, set it in a biker gang led by Ron Perlman, and you’ve essentially got 
David Duchovney returns as writer Hank Moody – single-father, ex-boyfriend, and a man keen on sex, liquor, and drugs – in the second season of 
Seeing as how it’s from the same producers, I can understand why 
Even though they’re inferior to the multigenerational writing of iCarly, preteens will probably hound the parents for the first volumes of Suite Life spin-off 
Turns out 
Turn the people reading skills of and creepy skilled charm of Derren Brown into a deception expert played by Tim Roth, and you’ve got the series 
Nick Cannon stars as 19-year-old Mike Holland in 
Schlocky and not a terribly good adaptation of Stephen King’s original short story, but a cult following has grown up around 
Smithsonian Networks has a trio of new documentaries on tap – first up being 
Want to see a show that’s lost the plot and really doesn’t know what to do with itself anymore? Look no further than the 8th season of 
Would you be surprised to find out that a movie with the title 
Oh no! Just when you thought it was safe to hang out at the Quick Stop…
Yeah, so, one of my absolute favorite Disney films I their live-action/animated hybrid musical 
This week’s Thinkgeek recommendation is a piece of cool kit that always seems to be out of stock. It’s just that popular. However long it lasts, it’s now back in stock, so run and pick up your very own 
Seeing as how my nephews are addicted to Nickelodeon (particularly the yellow crack that is Spongebob), it’s inevitable that I’d have to see the programming on offer. One of the shows that I actually enjoy quite a bit – and believe is just as well-scripted as the sitcoms on network TV, better even – is a favorite of my 5-year-old nephew, 
I can’t be the only one who was completely blindsided by the announcement that the 4th season of 
If you’ve ever watched the UK series Skins and thought to yourself “My teenage years were nothing like that sex party bacchanal,” then 
Well, now that we’ve reached the 12th season of 
It’s double-crosses, mysteries, and intrigue in 
Like most modern horror remakes, the new 
I know there are devotees who think it’s the second coming of Undeclared, but I have yet to find the appeal of 
So, in short, 
After an awkward, sometimes rudderless second season, things were largely back on track in the 3rd season of 
The second season of 
It’s not exactly intellectually stimulating, but using the beautiful high-definition of Blu-Ray to take aerial journeys around the world is certainly worth a look see to me, and that’s exactly what you get with both 
After her ridiculously self-confident appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, I was at least curious about 
LONDON – The Mutant Chronicles unleashes cannibalistic humanoids into a steam punk World War I world. The movie features Thomas Jane (Hung), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Devon Aoki (Sin City), Sean Pertwee (Doomsday) and John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich) as the only defense against these ungodly creatures in the CGI enhanced environment. Can Aoki cut them all down with her cool sword?
Sometimes you have to go to the postman to receive the goods. In this case it was a chance to hang out with Mr. McFeely. Since 1968, he’d been making the rounds of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood with his cry of “Speedy Delivery!”
