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JazB
Reviews
Stacked (2005)
Excellent, Consistent Sit-Com - Way Better Than I Expected!
When I first saw "Stacked" advertised, I thought, "oh no, not another average sit-com based around a once famous personality" (Cybil, Jenny, Fat Actress, The Comeback etc etc). But this was different. For once, the main personality in the show, in this case Pamela Anderson, was an asset and not a hindrance. Her character and her performance fit in with the other characters, instead of the other characters revolving around the "most famous" person on the show.
Another good thing about Stacked is its consistency. It reminds me of Cheers in its heyday; consistently funny with solid characters. Unlike the very excellent 'My Name is Earl', which varies wildly from week to week as to how the characters behave, Stacked is much more solid and satisfying, because of this. It's also pretty unique to see something so well crafted in this day and age.
The entire cast is brilliant. I wasn't immediately enamored with the casting of the two brothers who run the store, but I soon warmed to their characters. Christopher Lloyd is absolutely on form, delivering his lines with the comedy precision of a master, knowing how to make one line turn from a chuckle into a gut-laugh. Even Pamela Anderson, not known for comedy talent, has a character which fits her personality perfectly, while allowing her to drop some great lines and still seem like the same person.
Every character in this sit-com feels "right" and you can only imagine the amount of time and effort that must have gone into making this happen.
Stacked is never mean-spirited, overly cynical or even topical, it's just brilliantly crafted, constistently funny, top-quality entertainment. It echoes Cheers in its heyday - whatever happened to shows like this? I hope Stacked finds its audience and remains as good as the first season, and then keeps running for years to come! It deserves to!
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
The first 40 minutes are excellent
While this film starts off well, adding more depth to Bruce Willis's now familiar character and setting up an interesting storyline, it falls flat as soon as Jeremy Irons appears as Hans Gruber's less interesting brother. In fact as soon as he appears the film tries to retread the same points of the first film in EXACTLY the same way:
We have an "intelligent" bad guy, who is nowhere near as charismatic as Alan Rickman was as Hans Gruber.
We have the villan's scheme revealed as a disguise for a robbery.
And finally the film tries to make us feel happy when the terrorists get the lucre.
The problem here is that a) these plot points don't fit in with the first 40 minutes of the movie and b) the "bad guys" torture of our hero comes across as cold and sadistic. As such we are unable to even be charmed by them, let alone empathize with them.
Saying that, the film does have its good points, Samuel L. Jackson is a still a treat to watch and some of the action scenes are pretty inventive. But overall there is nothing to top the excellent balance of Die Hard 1 just yet.
Dharma & Greg (1997)
Nice show about relationships - shame about the comedy
Dharma and Greg really shines when it starts exploring relationship problems (eg last season's finale) but it falters when it tries to offer "light relief"; 'Here come the hippy parents!', hilarious. The juxtaposition of poor comedy often weakens the rest of the show's well-meaning (and often quite good) drama and can grate quite badly at times... and that's the good episodes! Without the decent responsibility/maturity storylines you're just left with the poor comedy, the writers shouldn't be afraid of going with the drama more.
Roseanne (the early years, at least) this is not.
Still, not a terrible way to relax, just not up there with the greats.
Blackadder Back & Forth (1999)
Absolutely awful
Watch any other episode from the superb BlackAdder legacy other than this one.
In fact, superglue your eyelids shut and puncture your eardrums rather than watch this.
It's the most turgid, brain-dead, stomach churning pile of crap I have ever seen, made all the worse by the fact that the other BlackAdders were completely brilliant.
I can only presume the writers have either a) been forced at gun point to write something crap, b) been offered loads of cash to turn out something crap that they though no-one will ever see anyway (it was in the Dome remember) or c) they were temporarily replaced by alien doppelgangers with no comedic writing talent.
Avoid, avoid, avoid.
Blackadder Back & Forth (1999)
Absolutely awful
Watch any other episode from the superb BlackAdder legacy other than this one.
In fact, superglue your eyelids shut and puncture your eardrums rather than watch this.
It's the most turgid, brain-dead, stomach churning pile of crap I have ever seen, made all the worse by the fact that the other BlackAdders were completely brilliant.
I can only presume the writers have either a) been forced at gun point to write something crap, b) been offered loads of cash to turn out something crap that they though no-one will ever see anyway (it was in the Dome remember) or c) they were temporarily replaced by alien doppelgangers with no comedic writing talent.
Avoid, avoid, avoid.
Catch-22 (1970)
The Good and The Bad...
Catch-22 was released around the same time as (the superior) M*A*S*H with pretty much the same aim: Show the stupidity and waste of war...
Catch-22 had a promising up and coming director, the writer of the Graduate and a sterling cast backing it up... But somehow it fails. The casting here is absolutely and utterly PERFECT. Alan Arkin IS Yossarian, Charles Grodin IS Aarfy, Anthony Perkins IS the Chaplain! The whole cast is absolutely PERFECT here!
Unfortunately the film is lacking the depth from the amazingly complicated novel... although somehow remaining faithful to it at the same time!
What's left is merely a series of seemingly unrelated comedic events... Kind of like the book, except it somehow misses the books heart. Catch-22 will have you laughing out loud, amazed at the perfect acting and making you feel happy, sad and shocked as it pleases... But two days later you won't remember a damned thing about it!
An unfortunate failure, but definitely worth seeing!
Android (1982)
Surprisingly good fun!
This may be low budget... but so was Dark Star!
I have to say that I strangely enjoyed this low budget attempt at a sci-fi movie. Despite its constraints it had plenty of great ideas and one thing I like: A weird atmosphere!
If you don't mind low budgetness and like weird movies (like me) then I strongly suggest this... It could easily be a cult movie!
Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
Excellent!
Great film of an amazing story that just happens to be true!
Steve Woz and John Draper have both said how Noah Wyle was EXACTLY like the real Steve Jobs - Amazing!
Martyn Burke does another fine job here, after the underrated 'Pentagon Wars'. He might single-handedly reinvent the TV movie!
Highly recommended, especially for computer bods.
Chasing Amy (1997)
Probably Smiths finest
A touching comedy filled with great moments, probably Smiths finest hour with a deftness and light touch not usually seen in his films.
One of my all time favourites, highly recommended.
Guilty as Sin (1993)
A Great Little Film!
I saw this film last night, and was surprised by it. I was very well written, directed and acted, yet no had put any comments about it on here, and it only scored a 5.6 user rating.
Well, I'd just like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a clever tense thriller, that wasn't a million miles away from Fatal Attraction with the roles reversed.
The two leading roles were brilliant (Don Jonson genuinely scary). In short, it was certainly a tense thriller that I'd recommend people to see, if only once.
It isn't the best film ever (it came from the writer of Maniac Cop 2 & 3) but it was neatly handled (it WAS directed by Sidney Lumet!).
Check it out.
Gummo (1997)
Surprising and Unique
I happened to channel-hop to this film the other day and was taken aback. For a long while I couldn't make up my mind if it was a documentary or a piece of fiction. Only the camera angles changing once every so often gave it away... but I was mesmerized none-the-less.
Very few films I have ever seen have ever truly been able to capture the homemade documentary feel and keep the characters looking real as well. The casting and acting was incredibly spot on. This is just like watching and documentary about real people, except it isn't, and for that I think it deserves praise.
Some have criticized it's lack of plot, I felt completely mesmerized by each scene. It wasn't important what was happening, or who was saying what to who... the atmosphere alone was enough.
Unfortunately the film veers from this genius to the impossibly bad with no warning. An intense scene watching a man smash up a kitchen chair is following by a 'in there cause its weird' scene of a kid skateboarding down a hill with a rabbit mask on. The fact that it seemed just be there to try and be off-the-wall was teeth grindingly bad, and these moments do pop quite occasionally without any warning.
On whole an experience that is impossible to describe and equally impossible to forget.
Recommended.
American Beauty (1999)
A great film.
Fight Club for the masses. Brilliant casting and acting all round, it remains cleverly impartial to events and characters leaving you to make your own mind up. One problem though is its tendency towards melodrama, luckily it doesn't succumb to this too much and remains pretty down-to-earth throughout. Oh yeah, and its funny too.
Overall: Utterly utterly brilliant.
Watch this film, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I did!