Firefly: The First Seven Episodes (review)

Firefly, Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Captain Malcolm Mal Reynolds, Gina Torres, Zoe, Alan Tudyk, Hoban Wash Washburn, Morena Baccarin, Inara Serra, Adam Baldwin, Jayne Cobb, Jewel Staite, Kaylee Frye, Sean Maher, Dr. Simon Tam, Summer Glau, River Tam, Ron Glass, Shepherd Book, Serenity, The Train Job, Bushwhacked, Shindig, Safe, Our Mrs. Reynolds, Jaynestown, Alliance, verse, in the black, border moons, border planets, Serenity, Persephone, sci-fi, science fiction, SF, western, TV, DVD, doomed series

Firefly (review)

My first exposure to *Firefly* came when I was assigned to review the DVD box set for Video Librarian, for which I review a lot of TV on DVD. Now, I don’t sit through 13 or 18 or 22 hours worth of *Tru Calling* or *Silk Stalkings* or whatever in order to write a 200-word overview — it’s not possible, and it’s not necessary, and even just a taste of most series is enough to prove that much of what appears on television is worse than instantly forgettable: it doesn’t even come close to distracting you while you’re actually watching it.

Everything Is Illuminated (review)

Actor Liev Schreiber (The Manchurian Candidate) aims high for his directorial debut with an ambitious, potentially precarious story about the indelible pull of the past and the enveloping warmth of family… and he succeeds fantastically, gifting us with a visually witty, beautifully painterly film that is extraordinarily wise when it isn’t quirky-funny. A sensitive, oddball … more…

Roll Bounce (review)

Remember when roller skates had eight wheels instead of a “blade” and Donna Summer’s “Last Dance” was always the final song of the rink session? Then you’re gonna love this exuberant homage to the brief, glorious time in American pop culture when disco reigned supreme and the skating rink was the teenage hangout on Saturday … more…

Oliver Twist (review)

To be sure, this is a handsome adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic tale of blah blah blah. All the bits are in place: the “Please, sir, I want some more,” the kindly coffin maker and his mean ol’ wife, the Artful Dodger and Fagin and Sykes, the saintly Mr. Brownlow, and through it all, one … more…

The Pippi Longstocking Collection (review)

She’s one of those definitively Generation X characters, the original latchkey kid, the first one left Home Alone: Pippi Longstocking, living on her own in the pastel Villa Villekulla without benefit of adult supervision and only a horse, Little Old Man, and a monkey, Mr. Nilsson, for company. Independently wealthy, thanks to her sailor-father’s adventures … more…

The Muppet Show: Season One (review)

There may be no greater touchstone among the childhood entertainments of Generation X than The Muppet Show, which introduced a whole new crop of kiddies to the comedic possibilities of vaudeville and “variety” while celebrating a gang of wildly different creatures who didn’t merely work together but created their own unique family dynamic. Our parents … more…

Lost: The Complete First Season (review)

The opening moments of the first episode of Lost are some of the most intense commercial television has ever seen: images of a catastrophic failure of technology that leaves its victims dazed, bewildered, and at the mercy of elements both natural and manmade. And as these 24 episodes unfold, hints that the hand of man … more…

Lord of War movie review: sympathy for the devil?

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Funny? Sure, *Lord of War* is funny. Funny like how you’re not sure whether that headline is from Reuters or The Onion. Funny like how Jon Stewart has to insist that what he’s about to tell you really happened and is not the invention of his team of political wagsters. Satirical? Sure, *Lord of War* is satirical. Satirical like the front page of *The New York Times* is satirical. Satirical like how, at the end of Andrew Niccol’s black comedy about a relatively small-time freelance arms dealer, he tells us that the biggest arms dealers in the world are the nations that are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.