The Lookout (review)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is poised to blow away thinking moviegoers with his hugely appealing combination of Keanu Reeves’ quirky good looks, Tobey Maguire’s engaging mopiness, and a Johnny Depp-esque hunger for offbeat, demanding roles.

The Namesake (review)

If you’re not a basketcase of sobby, sloppy tears of sadness and joy by the end of *The Namesake,* then I don’t know what’s wrong with you.

Stargate Atlantis: The Complete Second Season (review)

This Sci Fi Channel series has always been a pale shadow of its progenitor, the long-running Stargate SG-1: heavy on action, short on thoughtfulness, it touches on wit, smarts, and true science fiction speculation only momentarily, and sometimes even seemingly accidentally. The adventures of a military, scientific, and exploratory team from modern Earth in a … more…

What’s New Scooby-Doo? Complete 1st Season (review)

As if the original Scooby-Doo show of the late 1960s and early 70s weren’t poor enough an example of pointless cartoonery — not to mention a blight on the collective childhood memory of Generation X — this 2002-3 revival demonstrates just how hollow pop-culture nostalgia can be. Shaggy and Scooby, along Velma, Daphne, and Fred, … more…

Strumpet City (review)

I thought I was up on everything Irish, but I’d never heard of this one, and maybe there’s a reason why. James Plunkett’s 1969 best-selling epic novel was turned into this made-for-Irish-TV miniseries in 1980, the first major production of Ireland’s RTE TV, but honestly, it’s really pretty dull, and dates itself with its slow-moving … more…

The Real Middle Earth (review)

Completeist fans of The Lord of the Rings are the only ones who’ll get much kick out of this dry documentary about author J.R.R. Tolkien and where he may have found inspiration for his fantasy epic. Tolkien scholars discuss the English place names and landmarks the author would have encountered during his childhood in the … more…

Hopeless Pictures (review)

No film is “too small or too depressing” for Hopeles(s) Pictures, the stuggling film studio headed up by Mel Wax (the voice of Michael McKean: For Your Consideration) — that he would bestow this moniker upon his company by conflating the names of his parent’s, Hope and Les, is emblematic of the dual driving force … more…

Ben 10: The Complete Season 1 (review)

Would you put a devastatingly powerful piece of alien technology into the hands of 10-year-old boy? Of course not, which is why that premise has made this Cartoon Network entry a hit among boys aged 6 to 11. Grade-schooler Ben Tennyson stumbles across the “Omnitrix” on a summer camping trip — don’t ask how; it … more…

Comeback Season (review)

The most potentially intriguing aspect at work here is the fact that this straight-to-DVD release was directed by Bruce McCullough (Dog Park), late of Kids in the Hall. Too bad there isn’t even a hint of the kind of subversiveness and refusal to be ordinary that characterized the work of that wickedly funny comedy troupe. … more…