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Reviews
Quincy M.E.: Next Stop, Nowhere (1982)
outrageously brilliant
This is one of the greatest episodes of any television show ever. It's the famous 'punk rock' episode and it delivers on every level. From the band Mayhem shouting their anthem "Next Stop, Nowhere" to the talk show that the punk kids appear on, telling the world that they are "fighting boredom." Forget the last episode of M.A.S.H.-this one is far more important. There are classic scenes that take place at a local L.A. punk hangout that include the punk band Mayhem (concocted for the show), where the punk kids sneer and hurl insults at Quincy the likes of "your the problem! Your whole damn sick society is the problem!," and "Besides-who cares man..." The episode itself is a raving advertisement for normality and is laugh out loud fantastic. As Quincy spends the entire episode trying to locate a killer who took an ice pick to some dudes back in a "slam pit" while zonked out on pills, the punk kids are subjected to a total lack of understanding, a masterful touch of suburban propaganda that'll have you giggling for weeks to come.
Solyaris (1972)
a wonderful wonderful trip
I do believe that this is possibly one of the most brilliant films ever made. If there is a single soul that even remotely complains that it is slow or long is either a.) not into movies, or b.) not intelligent enough for the overwhelming amazement of what this film offers both visually and emotionally. Forget all other masterpieces, this tops them all. Each and every performance is of such depth that repeated viewings cannot begin to reveal the details of each frame and moment of Solaris. It is not a difficult movie at all, not by a long shot. It is simple, direct and completely hypnotic. The mystery involved is titillating, the looks on the characters faces priceless, the story as wide open as eternity itself. I have yet to see the re-make, and fear greatly that it will be nothing more than a laughable revisit of an already totally perfect film that asks more questions than it answers while asking of the viewer nothing more than to sit back and swim along with this poetic adventure-a visual delight that takes you from the earth and into space and through the end of your mind. Truly a breath taking experience.
Anglian Lives: Alan Partridge (2003)
consistently brilliant
Once again Steve Coogan destroys us with his fabulous Alan Partridge character-this time in the form of a 30 minute documentary about Alan's career and ideology and what his future holds. This doc is included on the second disc in the second DVD series of the second series, and it is absolutely fantastic. In the documentary we see Alan as even a bit more bitter and out of touch than on the actual show, as he reads aloud from his book, insults callers into his radio show and stays firmly anti-London. It's nice to see that as recent as 2003 Steve Coogan has held onto the center of what makes Alan such a watchable disaster; It's just plain funny.
Skins (1994)
crazy genre trash.
As a contribution to the world of film this is little more than an over the top exploitation of after school special styled themes, which is what actually makes this film so entertaining. It's lewd, raunchy, violent, ridiculous and completely out of control, with a neo nazi skinhead gang beating on a gay teen, raping random women, and generally terrorizing Hollywood Boulevard in an effort to impress upon the world the true white man's definition of freedom; a survival of the fittest type dogma set to the soundtrack of really bad eighties sounding Top Gun rock music. The father is a pitiful drunk at the start of the film, in exile in Mexico(there is hilarious shaky drunk hands and alcoholic bad behavior by Wings Hauser) for some murder he'd committed as a cop a year earlier, his guilt over the incident haunting him. Eventually a revenge plot is hatched as the entire family experiences violence on all fronts by the skinhead gang, and then the hunt is on. This one is so worth your time if you are into good, solid trashed out B movie street gang blowouts. The family even recruits the crips and bloods for a full scale riot meltdown against the skins.
The Warriors (1979)
Not as good as the original....
The problem with this new DVD version is Walter Hill's insistence on re-editing the film into a comic book story, complete with comic strip scene changes ala sin city and other such nonsense that totally removes the edge and strength of the original theatrical edit. This is a film with an action packed, adult themed feel that requires a sharp, hard delivery the way it was originally.It almost seems as if he did this edit out of some weird ambition to keep up with the new video game's look, or to capitalize on the whole Spiderman/Batman/sin city style of movie making that is so popular now, which I think is a grave mistake. The warriors as it was first released in the theaters and on video and initially on DVD is the version you really want-it contains all the drama, intensity and new york sleaze this movie shows to perfection. I give it seven stars because the movie is great, but this new version is pretty much a waste of your time-just get the first DVD release-it really is much better.
Metropolitan (1989)
A New Classic
A wonderful, marvelous, funny movie that I watch at least once a year. A true gem-the writing is great, the cast is perfect, and the arch, somewhat affected performances more than do the trick-that's who these people are! Arch, affected, wanna be know it all rich kid snobs whose currency in life is their intellect and class standing. The fact that the action takes place in a few small apartments only heightens the genius of this film-these locations represent the small world in which these young people's lives intersect, in how they dole out their verbiage, how much belonging to a small group of people can dictate the every day thoughts of each member of the gang. The kids have not yet lived enough to be fully forming the opinions they insist upon shoving down each others throats, and the comedy comes from their own inexperience and total lack of thinking other wise. This is like a high brow Breakfast Club, smarter and much more fun for those of us not into stereotype titillation. With out a doubt on of my favorites.