The Forbidden Kingdom

Surprisingly good!
So the commercials all promote Jackie Chan and Jet Li. What they neglect to do is mention, I dunno, the **main character** of the film, a young Boston kid named Jason Tripitikas (played by Michael Anganaro).

So the movie's basically a kid film. You have a reluctant hero who gets sent to a fantasy version of China, and along the way he learns martial arts and Eastern philosophy.

What did I like about it? The fight scenes are, for the most part, fantastic. They start off a little weak, get better over time, and then get absolutely fantastic when you have both Jet Li and Jackie Chan in the film. The fight scenes are weakest when there's too much CGI in them -- but most of them are purely physical, and quite good.

The Chinese fantasy aspects are authentic, if not accurate (much in the same way the HBO series Rome is not a completely accurate recounting of events, but an authentic recreation of the tone of ancient Rome). They throw in things like The Monkey...

3

Love and a . 45

"I regretted havin' to fork him in the neck."
Does anyone else besides me enjoy seeing a big name movie star before they made it big? While this wasn't Renée Zellweger's first film role, it was certainly the first where she had a starring credit, and certainly a far cry from her more demure character in 1996's Jerry Mcguire. Love and a .45 (1994), written and directed by Texas native C.M. Talkington (his first writing and directing credit) stars, along with Ms. Zellweger, an early appearance by Gil Bellows (who appeared in a much more famous film the same year titled The Shawshank Redemption and then found a greater degree of fame on the hit FOX television show Ally McBeal), and the ever-entertaining Rory Cochrane, who was once involved with Zellweger, and would later appear with her in Empire Records (1995). Also appearing are Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator), Jace Alexander (Eight Men Out), Ann Wedgeworth (My Science Project), Michael Bowen (Night of the Comet), and Peter Fonda (Easy Rider).

The movie, set in...

The big score and an escape into Mexico (of course it doesn't run as smoothly as that)
As a fan of offbeat indie movies, especially those featuring drugs and crime, this was a not-to-miss DVD. I missed the original release in 1994, but I did see Natural Born Killers, and while I can see the similarities on the surface, they are really two very different movies. Watching this, I experienced twist after twist, so I never knew which of the underdogs was going to come out on top, or who was going to win this round of the battle for life. Renee Zellweger will shock the pants off the viewer as a young trailer park resident who turns to a life of serious crime and murder, so she's worth the price of admission alone.

NOW we know where Tarentino COPIES his intensity! A#1 flick!
THIS is one of my MUST HAVE dvd's! The flick was first spotted on IFC channel and I WAS PROMPTLY DRAWN IN to the energy of this Indie jewel! If you enjoy believable action and complete realism, or if you've ever been down a Texas highway, view this gem! If you get into any ONE of the following, then this is your next movie...: Hot Pants, sex, drugs, Rock & Roll, pistols, law-gone-bad coppers, graphic violence, Texas twangs, Peter Fonda portraying a hippie or white girls seducing Mexican border guards. Now myself, Well, I love MY .45 so I dug the movie! Quintin T is no groundbreaker...this flick was his reference I'm betting...

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The Legend of the Lone Ranger

HORRIBLE DVD Transfer of a Mediocre Movie from 1981
First of all, indeed -- amazon.com has the reviews section wrong. Most of the other reviews are referring to the old television show, NOT the 1981 movie starring Klinton Spilsbury.

Now that we have that out of the way, there's little else to defend about this movie. Klinton Spilsbury (who looks like a more chiseled version of Rick Springfield), just isn't very good in the part. Admittedly, his voice was dubbed by actor James Keach, and I think this makes his performance even more wooden. It's way too monotone. I would love to hear Klinton's real voice some day.

The movie does have some saving graces. John Barry's score is absolutely terrific (the Waylon Jennings "songs" are quite the opposite though -- any time his one man "Greek chorus" comes from the speakers, it's flat out embarrassing). Jason Robards is quite good (although with limited screen time) as Ulysses S. Grant). Christopher Lloyd is actually pretty good as the bad guy (although I don't know...

Klinton Spilbury Is My Homie!
Who was that masked man? Why, it was Klinton Spilsbury! "Who the hell is Klinton Spilsbury?" you're probably asking. Well, it's a good question, coz no one really knows it seems.
To me, there's something fascinating about the concept of an actor making his film debut as the leading man in a major film, winning a Razzie award for the lousy performance, then never starring in a movie again. To this day, no one really knows where Spilsbury is, what he's doing, or if he's even alive. Rumor has it he was difficult to work with, and Wikipedia states that there is a rumor he was working at Subway for awhile!
Well, he had his 15 minutes(actually more like 98) as the iconic Lone Ranger in the 1981 bomb, The Legend Of The Lone Ranger-a movie considered so bad that it was swept under the rug and pretty much forgotten about. Even people I know who are into westerns are surprised to learn that a Lone Ranger film was made. Is it really as bad as it's reputation? No, of course not...

One of my Guilty Pleasures
I remember watching The Lone Ranger with my Father and when the movie came out, I was excited to relive that feeling. I thought the movie was a good retelling of the origion story and that it gave John Reid/Lone Ranger more of a human feel and that I could relate with him. I know that others didn't like the film, but I can still watch the film and feel like a kid again with it. I almost feel like yelling "High-Yo Silver, Away" everytime I hear the William Tell Overture. It's one of my personal favorites.

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Will & Grace: Season Eight

"The Finale" episode is included in this disc set.
"The Finale" episode is included in this disc set. This was information I could not locate at the Lion's Gate website or here on Amazon or with a web search. No need to buy both this set and the separately sold "The Finale" product (unless there's additional material in "The Finale" product that you wish to own).

The final silly season
There' no argument that this is one of the funniest series of all time, but season 8 was slightly ruined by what is one of the worst finales ever. It seems to have been written by people who've never watched the show and it's a completely unrealistic end to these characters (there's no way Will and Grace would stop talking to each other for so many years).

Still, for a fan of the series and especially for those with the other seasons on DVD, this is a must-get. It has a few funny episodes (although this is probably the weakest season of all), and the bloopers are always a good addition to the set.

Classic Will and Grace
As always well written and funny. Extras are pretty standard if you own any of the other seasons. Season 8 live episodes are very funny, you can see the cast really enjoys their jobs. Finale is a great episode by itself, very clever how everyone ages 20 years but Karen is frozen in time.

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