The Cave (review)

Shades of Moria, Batman! Atrociously mixed pop-culture references are nothing compared to the mishmash of elements from far superior creature features that got dunked into this aggressively mediocre film. A team of cave divers, led by the painfully bland Cole Hauser (2 Fast 2 Furious), descend into the Carpathian Mountains for a spot of exploration … more…

The Secret Garden (review)

Based on the beloved novel by Francis Hodgson Burnett, this charming adaptation from the BBC has achieved classic status in the thirty years since its production, and it arrives now on DVD for the first time. The precocious Sarah Hollis Andrews stars as young Mary Lennox, newly orphaned and sent to live with her emotionally … more…

Pom Poko (review)

Studio Ghibli, the anime studio founded by groundbreaking filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, is famous for producing films that are extraordinarily imaginative and passionately heartfelt, like the recent Spirited Away. And this 1994 film from Ghibli is a stunning example of the depths of emotion and the heights of fancy animated film can achieve. … more…

The Nanny: The Complete First Season (review)

The jokes are awful: “That’s not the Queen Mother, that’s my mother from Queens!” The clichés are dreadful: Rich people are fake and repressed, blue-collar types are fresh and honest, and kids are precociously mean little buggers. And that voice! Fran Drescher’s Flushing-inflected diction could strip paint, and that seems to be the overarching goal … more…

Lipstick & Dynamite: The First Ladies of Wrestling (review)

Lively and charged with a furious nostalgia, this in-your-face documentary about some of the roughest women you’ll ever meet is a vivid exploration of a mostly forgotten sport-cum-entertainment: lady wrestling of the 1940s and 50s. Some of the top stars of the era — Killem Gillem, Penny Banner, The Fabulous Moolah, and others — look … more…

Father of the Pride: The Complete Series (review)

“Oh my god, they’re gonna die. Siegfried and Roy are gonna die,” John Goodman (Beyond the Sea) the white lion intones boredly and sarcastically in the first episode of this frequently bizarre and always tiresome animated series. He’s watching the Vegas showmen’s schtick from offstage, waiting for his cue to enter, and this is his … more…

The Fantastic Four: The Complete 1994-5 Animated Television Series (review)

There are moments of ironic wit and cleverness among the 26 episodes of the TV adaptation of the longest-running comic-book series. There just aren’t enough of them. One “action-packed” story is fairly indistinguishable from another as Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing battle supervillain Doctor Doom — there are only so … more…

The Divine Bette Midler (review)

Fans of the Divine Miss M will certainly enjoy this opportunity to listen to her famous friends — Barry Manilow, Danny DeVito, Barbara Hershey, Bruce Vilanch, and many others — rave about how wonderful she is, interspersed with clips from her performances on stage and screen. But it’s hard to imagine anyone else getting caught … more…

Clarissa (review)

This handsome BBC/Masterpiece Theater production toodles along elegantly, all period costumes and posh accents and people being beastly to one another in the most refined way… until it turns so shockingly vicious that you’re riveted, unable to believe what you’re seeing. The hints were there all along, of course, in this original dangerous liaison, based … more…