Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Cheers: Season 5

 

The 26-episode fifth season of Cheers aired during the 1986/1987 TV season. All the series regulars returned for the fifth season, including Ted Danson and Shelly Long, who played the two leads, Sam and Diane. Many of the "regular" recurring cast members, including Dan Hedaya and Jean Kasem, appeared this season, and Bebe Newerth returned in her role as Lilith. Lilith and Frasier were heavily featured in a couple of great episodes, including one of the funniest of the series so far. Other notable guest stars this season included Brenda Strong, Jay Thomas, Brent Spiner (who would go on to play Mr. Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation), and John Cleese. 

The blu-ray set is a three-disc set. As of this writing, the blu-rays are only available in the complete series release, with individual seasons only being available on DVD. Like the fourth season release, this one does not include any bonus material, but the episodes can be played with English captions.

The series continued the same format that it had from the beginning of the show, blending weekly procedural storylines with longer serial arcs. Of course, the longest arc throughout the season was the continued question of whether Sam and Diane would get together. All of the main characters get at least one episode focused primarily on them, including Woody, and every character gets good material to work with throughout the season. This season would also be the last for Shelly Long, as she made plans to leave the show after the season. Diane was written off in the season finale, but the writers did leave her departure open-ended, presumably so she could return if Long changed her mind. 

The show remained good, but its writing differed significantly from what would be done on a similar show today. The Sam and Diane "will they or won't they" storyline was getting a bit stale and played out by this season, and the character of Diane was getting a bit irritating and not really evolving. So, writing Diane out of the show was not a horrible thing, but I do think it could have been done better (especially given the fact that Long did not end up returning to the series, save for a guest appearance in the series finale). One good thing the show did was continue to expand the world beyond just the bar, and saw the characters interacting with each other outside the bar from time to time. Ultimately, if you liked the previous seasons, this one is worth watching.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Cheers: Season 4

 

The 26-episode fourth season of Cheers aired during the 1985-1986 TV season. This season marked the start of the cast turnover, with the series finally acknowledging the death of Nicholas Colasanto, who passed away during the filming of Season Three. To replace his character, Coach, Woody Harrelson was brought on as a series regular to play Coach's pen pal from Indiana (who exchanged pens with Coach), Woody Boyd. Woody is hired as a new bartender and brings a bit of new life to the show. All the other series regulars, including Ted Danson, Shelly Long, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger, and George Wendt, returned for the fourth season. Frasier remained a recurring character this season, but appeared in most of the episodes. The guest and recurring cast members this season included Kate Mulgrew (who would of course go on to star in Star Trek Voyager), Max Wright (who would go on to star in the series Alf), politician Gary Hart, Dan Hedeya and Jean Kasem (reprising their roles as Nick and Loretta), Jennifer Tilly, and Sherylin Fenn. Bebe Neuwirth also made her first appearance as Lilith about halfway through the season.

The season picks up shortly after the events that ended season three, revealing whether Sam was successful in stopping Diane's marriage to Frasier. From there, the show continues to be a blend of a story-of-the-week procedural and serial story arcs. The show remains primarily a comedy, but occasionally mixes in some dramatic moments. Some of the comedy is very much dated, and some of it absolutely would not be done the same way if the series were made today. Some of the jokes are very funny, but others are a bit cringeworthy. 

The blu-ray set is a three-disc set. As with the first three seasons, the A/V quality of the episodes is very good. As of this writing, the individual seasons have only been released on DVD, and the blu-rays are only available as a complete series set. There is no bonus material for the fourth season, just the episodes, which can be played in a "play all" mode that allows you to pick up where you leave off, and can be played with or without English captions. 

The series continues to be funny, but the "will they or won't they" storyline between Sam and Diane does get a bit old this season. The writers provide all the characters with good material to work with, and each of them receives at least a storyline for an episode or two. They continue to expand Frasier's role, and he is much funnier this season than he was in Season Two. Woody Harrelson does a very good job being the new cast member and playing a character with similar qualities to Coach, without being a carbon copy. Ultimately, if you liked the series up to this point, you will probably like the fourth season. While I cannot say that everyone will like the series, especially younger people who may not like some of the humor, if you liked Seasons 1-3, this one is worth watching.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Cheers: Season 3

 

The 25-episode third season of Cheers aired during the 1984/1985 TV season. All of the main cast members returned for season three, although there would be some upheaval in the cast as Nicholas Colasanto became ill and passed away during production. Because of Shelly Long's and Rhea Perlman's real-life pregnancies, episodes were shot out of order (since Long's pregnancy was not written into the show). Because of the shooting schedule, Colasanto's character, Coach, would appear more sporadically as the season went along and make a couple of appearances posthumously. The writers would usually insert a line or two explaining his absence in the episodes in which he did not appear. The main addition to the series this season is the character of Frasier Crane, who is brought on as a recurring character as a love interest for Diane and rival to Sam. Dan Hedaya made a couple of appearances as Carla's ex-husband, Nick, as did Jean Kasem, who played Nick's new wife Loretta. The other recognizable season three guest stars included Carole Kane and Michael Richards.

The blu-ray set is a three-disc set and reproduces the content of the original DVD releases. Again, the individual seasons are not available on blu-ray; you can (at least as of this writing) only get the blu-rays in a complete series set. The A/V quality of the blu-ray release is very good. The extras are all included on the final disc. Those include clips of Norm talking about his wife Vera (who never appear on screen), clips of Carla making fun of Cliff, clips of Fraiser's key moments in the season, a virtual tour of the bar, and a tribute to Nicholas Colasanto (which features interviews with Ted Danson, George Wendt, and Rhea Perlman talking about Colasanto and what he brought to the show and the character of Coach.

The series really found its footing by the third season. The show continued to be a mix of procedural weekly storylines and longer serial arcs. While the show's focus remained on Sam and Diane's relationship, the writers continued to expand the storylines for the supporting characters, particularly Cliff and Norm. Each of the supporting characters received at least one show devoted to him or her. As was the case in the first two seasons, there are definitely jokes that would probably not be used if the show were made today, and there are quite a few adult jokes, so while the series is mostly good-natured and wholesome, it is not entirely family-friendly. Ultimately, if you liked the first couple of seasons, this one is worth watching.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Cheers: Season 2

 

The 22-episode second season of Cheers aired during the 1983/1984 TV season. All the main cast members returned for the second season, with John Ratzenberger being promoted to a series regular and included in the main credits. The show started gaining popularity in the second season, and as a result, it was able to bring in Dick Cavett for a cameo and recognizable guest stars such as Markie Post, Christopher Lloyd, and Dan Hedaya.

The show continued to primarily use a story-of-the-week procedural format, but also called back to storylines from previous episodes. The prominent serial arc was Sam's (played by Ted Danson) relationship with Diane (played by Shelly Long). The second season picks up immediately after the events that ended season one, with Sam and Diane kissing and agreeing to try to have a relationship. To say their relationship did not go smoothly was an understatement, with the two constantly bickering throughout the season. Even though their relationship was the primary storyline throughout the season, the writers gave all the cast members great material to work with, and all the characters received at least one episode centered on them.  

The blu-ray set is a four-disc set. Again, at least in the US, the blu-rays are only available as a complete series set, with each season packaged individually inside a decorative outer box. The A/V transfer is very good, and the play all mode allows you to pick up where you leave off if you stop before watching all the episodes.  The individual seasons are only available on DVD, which is a four-disc set. The extras are all on the third disc and are transferred over from the DVD release. Those include interviews with some of the cast members, some of which included archival footage from an Entertainment Tonight segment, and some of which were from interviews with Danson, George Wendt, and Rhea Perlman made after the series ended. Then there are three different featurettes showing clips of Cliff's, Norm's, and Carla's best moments of the season and a gag reel. 

The show really starts to hit its stride in the second season. It is a good comedy, but some of the jokes are absolutely dated and would not work today. For example, there are jokes about being gay that would probably not get past today's censors, and a segment where Sam and Diane repeatedly slap each other that would not fly today. That said, the series is mostly good-natured and enjoyable. While there is no overt sexual content, there are jokes that are definitely suggestive, so it is not entirely family-friendly. Ultimately, if you liked the first season, the second season is worth watching. 

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Cheers: Season 1

 

Cheers was the long-running sitcom set in a Boston bar about the lives of the bar workers and patrons. The 22-episode first season aired during the 1982/1983 TV season. It starred Ted Danson, Shelly Long, Nicholas Colasanto, Rhea Perlman, and George Wendt. John Ratzenberger, who would later become a series regular, had a recurring role in the first season (although he was in most episodes). Harry Anderson (who is probably best known for his role on the sitcom Night Court) had a recurring role, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tip O'Neil, was the season's notable guest appearance. 

In the show, Danson plays Sam Malone, an ex-pitcher for the Boston Red Sox who had to retire because he was an alcoholic. He runs a bar called Cheers that he bought before he retired, but manages to refrain from drinking. Long plays Diane Chambers, a grad student at Boston University who is left by her fiancé in the pilot episode and becomes a waitress at the bar. Colasanto plays a bartender named Ernie Pentusso, nicknamed "Coach" because he used to be a coach in the major leagues. Perlman plays a cynical waitress at Cheers named Carla, and Wendt plays Norm Peterson, a regular at the bar who spouts one-liners. The show is a procedural sitcom. It is not about anything in particular, just the lives of the people who work in and frequent the bar. The one major storyline in the first season was whether Sam and Diane, who were attracted to each other but also annoyed each other, would get together.    

The blu-ray set (which is not sold separately, only in the complete series set) is a three-disc set. It matches the content of the four-disc DVD set that was released years ago. The A/V quality of the blu-ray is very good, and the episodes look and sound excellent in the HD format. All the extras, which were also carried over from the DVD release, are on the final disc. Those include an interview with Ted Danson (filmed in 2003 after the series ended), clips of Sam and Diane arguing, clips of Coach dispensing wisdom, clips of Norm's various entrances, and a trivia game. 

The series is good but dated. While the show is well-written, it definitely has jokes that would fly in the 1980s but would not work if it were made today. It was very well-acted. All the actors had great comedic timing and seemed to have very good chemistry. If you watched the show during its original run, it is a good blast from the past. If you are watching it now because you remember the show but did not watch it regularly (or because you watched the spin-off series), even though it is dated, it is still worth watching.   

DVD/Movie Review: The Big Town

 

The Big Town is a 1987 film starring Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Tommy Lee Jones, Suzy Amis, Bruce Dern, Lee Grant, Tom Skerritt, and David Marshall Grant. The story is set in the late 1950s. In it, Matt Damon's character, J.C. Cullen, makes a living playing craps in a small town in Indiana. He decides to move to Chicago to become a professional gambler. He starts to work for two professional gamblers (played by Dern and Grant), gets mixed up with the owner of a strip club (played by Jones), and begins having an affair with the owner's wife (played by Lane), who hooks him into a revenge scheme. He also starts a romance with Amis' character, a single mother who wants to become a disc jockey and has to choose which life he ultimately wants. 

There are many versions of the DVD out there. I have the French import, so it can only be played on a Region 2 or Region free player. The menus are in French, and the audio track defaults to French, but you can play it with the English audio track, which plays with French subtitles. That version has no extras. The movie is okay, but not great. It has a similar style and tone to many late 1980s films that tried to recapture the film noir era style. It is absolutely dated, and there are some things in the movie (like a white character dropping the "n-word" and men smacking women) that would not fly today. It has a lot of swearing, some sexual content, and nudity. Lane has a few topless scenes (and they are spectacular) and a couple of sex scenes with Dillon. The acting is good, but the script was somewhat limited and did not give the cast (which included many excellent actors) much to work with. If you are a fan of the genre or any of the actors in the film, it is worth checking out, but it is not a movie that I would classify as a must-see. 

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Battlestar Galactica: The Remastered Collection

 

This is a box set containing the original Battlestar Galactica series that aired 24 episodes during the 1978/1979 TV season and the 10-episode spinoff series, Galactica 1980, which aired in the winter and spring of 1980. The original series starred Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Lorne Greene, Maren Jensen, Laurette Spang, John Colicos, Herbert Jefferson, Tony Swartz, Noah Hathaway, and Terry Carter. Jane Seymour had a guest starring role in the first handful of episodes but left the series early in the season, and Ed Begley Jr. had a supporting role in the three-part pilot episode. If you watch the bonus features, you will find out all the male cast members were bumed when Seymour left because they all had the hots for her. Galactica 1980 had an almost entirely new cast, with only Greene and Jefferson reprising their characters from the original series (although Benedict did appear in what would be the series finale). The main cast members in the spinoff series were Kent McCord, Barry Van Dyke, Robyn Douglass, and Robbie Rist.

The plot of both series involves a war between humans from a different galaxy and a race of androids called Cylons. In the pilot episode, the Cylons lure the leaders of the 12 human colonies (planets) to a peace conference, under the guise of negotiating a truce. The Cylons attack the conference and the 12 colonies, virtually wiping out the humans except for the crew of the Galactica, a battleship (called a Battlestar), and several colonial ships with refugees from the various colonies. The remaining ships start on a quest to find a lost 13th colony, Earth (which is in a different galaxy), while trying to avoid Cylon attacks. The original series was canceled after the first season without the Galatica reaching Earth. In the spinoff series, set 30 years after the events of the original series, Galactica arrives at Earth, only to discover humans on Earth are not technologically advanced enough to fight the Cylons. The Galactica drops off two crew members, (McCord and Van Dyke's characters) to integrate with the humans of Earth and help them advance their technology and then leaves the solar system to lead the Cylons away from Earth.

The Blu-Ray set is an eight-disc set. The original series has six discs and Galactica 1980 has two. Only the original series has bonus features. Those include a commentary track on the three-part pilot episode, including Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict. There are deleted scenes and outtakes for most episodes spread across the six discs, and then, on the final disc, a series retrospective that includes interviews with some of the surviving cast members and the series creator, and featurettes on restoring the series in HD. Galactica 1980 does not have any bonus features. The episodes can be played in a "play all" mode and you can pick up where you leave off if you stop in the middle of an episode. The A/V quality is good to excellent, but because computer-generated effects did not exist when the original series aired, you can definitely tell how fake the effects were when watching the series in HD, probably moreso than if you watched the episodes in standard-definition.

The original series is okay, but very dated and cheesy. Galactica 1980 is dated, cheesy, and mostly bad (although it has some okay moments). Neither series is as good as the 2004 reboot, not only because the special effects were not as advanced, but because Sci-Fi series at the time were not taken all that seriously, so the writing was not all that good and the look and feel of both series was very dated. Ultimately, while neither series is great, the original series is a Sci-Fi classic. If you are a fan of the 2004 reboot series, it is interesting to watch these series to see how the 2004 series changed and adapted the storylines and the various characters.     

DVD/TV Series Review: ALF: The Complete Series (Deluxe Edition)

 

ALF: The Complete Seris is a DVD box set containing the live-action sitcom Alf, which aired for four seasons on NBC from 1986 to 1990, and the two animated Saturday morning cartoons that were spun off of the main series: Alf: The Animated Series and Alf Tales. The live-action series was created by Tom Patchett and Paul Fusco about an alien from the planet Melmac named Gordon Shumway (but always called ALF, short for alien life form), whose ship drifted in space for a year after his planet blew up and then crashed into the garage of a family in Los Angeles. Fusco created the character of ALF, voiced him in the series, and acted as the puppeteer. The series also starred Max Wright, Anne Schedeen, Andrea Elson, and Benji Gregory in the leading roles as the Tanner family members with whom ALF lives. John Lamatta and Liz Sheridan play the most prominent supporting characters in the series, Tanner's neighbors, Trevor and Raquel Ochmonek. The Animated Series aired from 1987 to 1989 and was a story-of-the-week cartoon about ALF's life on Melmac. Alf Tales aired from 1988 to 1990 and spoofed Fairy Tales such as Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, etc., often infusing them with pop-culture references such as movie references like The Godfather or 80s personalities like Sigfried and Roy and Johnny Carson. 

The DVD set is a 24-disc set. The final disc is a bonus disc that contains a series retrospective featuring interviews with Fusco and Patchett, the 1996 TV movie Project ALF, which resolved the cliffhanger that the parent series ended on, and a handful of episodes from the series with Patchett and Fusco (mostly in character as ALF) commentating on the episodes as bubbles with facts about the series or jokes pop up on the screen. Overall, this is a nice box set, especially for people who were kids in the 1980s watching the show when it aired. The live-action series is the best of everything included in this set. It was mainly wholesome and family-friendly, but occasionally, it would sneak a more adult joke in. The series had quite a few recognizable character actors from the 1980s who appeared, along with a couple of well-known guest stars like Ed McMahon and David Odgen Stiers. The only drawback is that the series ended on a massive cliffhanger. If you watch the bonus material, you will discover that NBC had not decided on the series' fate as the fourth season ended. The producers agreed with NBC that they would end the season on a cliffhanger, and if the series was not renewed for a fifth season, they would make a TV movie to wrap up the story. Unfortunately, NBC backed out of that agreement, so the ending went unresolved until 1996 when ABC agreed to do the TV movie Project ALF.

While it was a decent ending to the story, it did not include any of the cast members from the main series, so it was not a proper series finale. The two animated series were fine but were definitely geared 100% for kids, so they are not as enjoyable for adults. Ultimately, ALF was a fun show. If you lived through the 1980s, it will be a nostalgic blast from the past. One thing some may enjoy is that there are a couple of shots taken at donald t***p, proving that the orange genital wart was just as big a joke back then as he is now. Of course, Americans would be stupid enough to elect an idiot who was a punchline for 80s sitcoms and cartoons as President. The show is dated and a bit cheesy but holds up well and is worth the time to watch.

DVD/Movie Review: Paradise

 

Paradise is a 1982 movie starring Phoebe Cates and Willie Ames. The film itself is bad. It is basically a rip-off of Blue Lagoon, which was probably much more popular than it (Blue Lagoon) should have been. This is actually Phoebe Cates' film debut. She is probably best known for her roles in the Gremlins movies and the 1980s coming-of-age movies, including the iconic scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Willie Ames was a child actor and later co-starred in Charles in Charge. They end up running through the desert (seemingly finding every oasis along the way), to get away from an Arab prince (of course named "The Jackyl") who wants Sarah (Cate's character) as a bride. So, yeah it is a bit racist.

The plot of the movie is basically an excuse to have Cates nude about every 15-20 minutes throughout. It was actually filmed before she did Fast Times, and honestly, I am not sure how the nudity got cleared given that Cates was 17 for at least part of the time the movie was being filmed. The movie pretty much bombed, and Cates never had anything to do with it after it was released. Needless to say, it was never something that would have been able to be shown on TV because it would be less than an hour long with the nudity edited out. The movie itself is horribly written, and, as a result, the acting is not all that great either. Cates and Ames have little to no chemistry with each other, so when it gets to the point where they supposedly fall in love, they have less passion than the two Chimps (yes, there are Chimps, too) that tag along with them throughout the movie. If you grew up in the 1980s and had a huge crush on Phoebe Cates because of Fast Times, Private School, and Gremlins, she is the only reason to see this movie. Otherwise, you are not missing anything if you skip it.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Short Circuit

 

Short Circuit is a comedy from 1986 starring Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, Tim Blaney, Austin Pendleton, and G.W. Bailey. Chances are, if you were a kid in the 1980s, you loved this movie. For those who have not seen it, yet somehow stumbled on the page for the DVD or Blu-Ray, it is about a robot called Number 5 that was designed to be a military weapon, programmed with artificial intelligence which, after being hit by lightning, becomes "alive". As I mentioned above, it stars 1980s staples Steve Guttenburg and G.W. Bailey from the Police Academy movies and Brat Pack member Ally Sheedy. Fisher Stevens played the comic relief sidekick as an assistant to Guttenburg's engineer/programmer character, who built and programmed the robots.

The movie definitely toes the line between adult and kid movies. The robot definitely appeals to kids, but there is a lot of swearing and off-color humor, mostly sexual jokes made by Stevens' character. So, it is probably not something you would want a really young kid to watch, but I think it is acceptable for kids who are 10, 11, or 12 years old and up. While rated PG, it could have easily been hit with a PG-13 rating. There is no nudity or sex in the movie; however, the closest is Sheedy in a bubble bath with everything covered.

The Blu-Ray release was very bare-bones. There are no bonus materials or extras. The AV transfer is of minimal quality, with the original aspect ratio of the movie presented, so if you have a large screen, it will play basically in a box in the middle of your screen. Not exactly widescreen, but not fullscreen either. Overall, it is a good comedy, that also blends some drama along with a bit of ethics and morality thrown in there. The writing and acting are okay for what it is, but neither are award-winning by any means. It flows around an hour and a half in length. For those who grew up in the 80s and probably watched it at least once on VHS, it is a good nostalgia trip down memory lane.

DVD/Movie Review: Mischief

 

Mischief is a coming-of-age teen comedy from 1985 directed by Mel Damski and starring Kelly Preston, Chris Nash, Doug McKeon, Jamie Gertz, Catherine Mary Stuart, and Terry O'Quinn. It is one of the many teen comedies from the 1980s, such as Fast Times, Porky's, Private School, etc., and had similar themes to those movies. It is set in 1950s small-town Ohio. Doug McKeon plays Jonathan, the local nerdy kid, and virgin trying to get with the hot girl,  Marilyn, played by Kelly Preston. Chris Nash plays Gene, the rebelling teen who moves to the town, clashes with almost every authority figure, and befriends Jonathan.  

The DVD has long been out of print, so you will have to pay more to get it unless you really luck out. There are no extras, just the movie itself, which starts playing as the disc loads. It would be nice if it were re-released with a commentary track or something like that, but given that it was not the most popular movie of the genre, that is unlikely. While I would not say the movie is as good as Fast Times, or the original Porky's, it is probably as good as any of the Porky's sequels. Most likely, it will be a nostalgic blast from the past for people who grew up in the 1980s and remember seeing it on cable. It is a decent movie, but it is not a great movie by any means. It is a pretty formulaic coming-of-age story, but it does have a pretty good 1950s soundtrack. And, of course, the movie also has the very famous Kelly Preston full-frontal nude scene. It is probably a movie that could not be made today (at least not in the same way), given some of the themes. Although the awkward teen courting and sex is certainly something that is timeless regardless of the era. So, it is not a must-see, but it is worth watching, especially if you watched it when you were young.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Supergirl

 

Supergirl is an action-adventure movie from 1984 starring Helen Slater, Faye Dunaway, Peter O'Toole, Mia Farrow, Hart Bochner, and Peter Cook. It is definitely a hot mess of a movie, made solely to capitalize on the success of the Christopher Reeve-led Superman movies, which, as time has pretty much revealed, were only a success because of what Richard Donner did with the first movie and the parts of the second movie that he filmed before being fired. But, when Donner was removed from the process entirely as he was in Superman III, the quality of the product went way down.

As people may or may not know, after making Superman III, the producers of the Superman franchise, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, decided that they did not want to make any more Superman movies and decided to bring Supergirl to the big screen. What followed was a pretty incoherent mess of a movie with plot holes a mile wide and a horrible script. It also proved that Superman IV probably would have been just as bad had the Salkinds stayed on to produce it.

Supergirl was definitely trying to Follow the Superman I formula of having a newcomer play Supergirl. The fresh out of high-school 19-year-old Helen Slater was chosen for the leading role, and like the original Superman film, more established actors were hired to play the supporting roles. In this movie, Faye Dunnaway was cast as the big bad, a witch named Selena, and Peter O'Toole was cast in an almost useless role of Zartar, the creator of Argo city, a place in "inner space" where a bunch of Kryptonians lived. Frankly, I am amazed either O'Toole or Dunnaway decided to do the movie, given that the script and the budget (especially the special effects budget) took a huge step back from Superman I and II and even Superman III. Christopher Reeve was supposed to appear as Superman/Clark Kent but backed out at the last minute, and they replaced him with a combination of a Superman poster and bringing in Marc McClure to make an extended cameo appearance as Jimmy Olsen to tie this movie into the Superman movies. McClure has gone on record saying that his role in the movie made no sense, and he has no idea why they even wanted him there if they would not have him mention Superman.

The story is really bad, and as I said above, the plot has a ton of holes. For example, it is never explained how Kara has any idea that her cousin is on Earth, is called Superman, and goes by Clark Kent to disguise his identity when she has been living in Argo City, which is located in another dimension. She leaves Argo City and comes to Earth to chase a sphere that is the power source for Argo City, which ends up in Selena's possession, giving her power over pretty much everything. For some reason, Kara disguises herself as a high school student named Linda Lee at an all-girls school in Midville, Illinois, and pretty much knows how to use all her powers and has a super-suit as she emerges from a lake as she crosses from "inner space" to our dimension. Selena, who has an orb that makes her all-powerful, uses it to make a landscaper (played by Hart Bochner, who would go on to play the slimy Nakatoma employee in Die Hard a few years later) fall in love with her (of course he falls in love with Kara instead).

The Blu-Ray has the international cut of the film that comes in at just over a couple of hours. This was longer than the US theatrical cut. I saw that years ago when I was a kid, but I do not remember how long that was and what was cut out of it. It definitely felt that two hours was way too long for this movie, though. The extras include a making-of featurette that lasts about 51 minutes and the theatrical trailer. Then, on a separate DVD, there is the director's cut of the movie that really only changes the opening a little and extends some of the scenes. But, it does not change the movie drastically. There is also a commentary track with the director and a project consultant. They definitely stick up for the movie and don't really get into the fact that it was a flop that was critically and commercially panned, and they pretty much just stick to talking about how the movie was made.

Overall, the movie is kind of in the category of so bad you have to watch it. I think the failure was that it was allowed to be campy and not have a serious script, unlike the Superman movies, which got more protected by DC Comics and Warner Brothers. Helen Slater was definitely the best part of the movie, especially given how young and inexperienced she was. But, she was not given a lot to work with. I think Peter Cook was horribly cast and did not fit in a Superhero movie at all, and Dunneway's character was just dumb. Again, I think she did what she could with it, but it was not much to work with, either. The budget for the movie must have been a lot less than for any of the Superman movies because the special effects were horrible. They were more like the Superman IV effects after the new producers cut the budget for that movie and went on the cheap with everything. So, it did not have anything close to the look or feel of the first three Superman movies. I know that the filmmakers wanted it to stand on its own, but given that it was in the same universe as Superman, it should have had much better continuity. I think the movie would have been much better without the campy script and had used the version of the story that Kara sent to Earth to protect Kal-El, but took longer to get here, like is the backstory for the Supergirl television series. Then make it a team-up movie with Superman, which Christopher Reeve probably would have stayed on the movie for.

While the Supergirl movie never did turn into a franchise, Slater was able to capitalize on the movie by playing Lara, Kal-El/Clark's Kryptonian mother on the show Smallville, and playing Kara's adoptive Earth mother on the Supergirl TV series. I think it is worth seeing if you are a fan of the Superman movies or Superman and Supergirl from the comics. That said, it is definitely not a must-see by any stretch of the imagination, and you would not miss much if you decide to skip it.

DVD/TV Series Review: Alf: Season 3

 

The 26-episode third season of Alf aired during the 1988/1989 TV season. The main cast members, including Paul Fusco, Max Wright, Andrea Elson, Benjy Gregory, and Anne Schedeen, returned this season. Schedeen's role was reduced during the season to accommodate her real-life pregnancy, which was written into the show. All the cast members playing the Tanner's neighbors, the Ochmoneks, also returned, including John LaMotta, Liz Sheridan, and Josh Blake.

The DVD set is a four-disc set.  The episodes have English captions, but there are no bonus features such as episode commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes material, or the like. The show continues to be a fun, family-friendly procedural sitcom. Aside from two two-part episodes, the storylines do not stretch throughout the season. A particular episode's storyline is resolved by the end of that episode. This season included two two-part episodes, which would see the series' biggest guest stars appear. There was a two-part episode in which Alf filled in for Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show (which were mainly clip-shows, showing highlights from throughout the series). Johnny did not appear, but Ed McMahon appeared in both episodes. In the second, David Ogden Stiers, who played Major Winchester on M*A*S*H, guest starred as a homeless person hanging out in the neighborhood and who, of course, discovers ALF. Overall, the show continued to be a fun sitcom. It was a very wholesome, feel-good show. All of the jokes were family-friendly, although the show did have the occasional more adult-oriented joke that would be a double-entendre that would go over most kid's heads. Whether you watched the show when it originally aired or not, it is a good comedy that holds up pretty well nearly 40 years after it first aired (as of this writing) and is still worth watching.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: The Master: Complete Series

 

The Master was an action-adventure series that aired during the 1984 TV season. It is what you get if you combine any of the 1980's procedural action series like A-Team, Greatest American Hero, Night Rider, etc., with the Cannon Ninja trilogy (which had a big cult following). It never gained traction as a show and was canceled after 13 episodes. I was pretty young when the series first aired, and I loved martial arts and all things ninja. I remember watching some of the episodes when they originally aired. As a kid, it was easy to overlook the cheesy and sometimes downright bad acting and writing. Watching it again as an adult, the horrible acting and writing are far more noticeable. If, however, you were a kid back in the early to mid-1980s, this is a nostalgic blast from the past.

The series starred Lee Van Cleef and Timothy Van Patten, with recurring appearances by the star of the Cannon Ninja trilogy (Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, and Ninja III: The Domination), Sho Kasugi. Van Cleef played John Peter McCallister, an aging Ninja Master returning to the United States to find his daughter. Kasugi plays his former student, Okasa, from Japan, who was out to kill him, and Van Patten plays Max Keller, who becomes his new student after the two meet in the mists of a bar fight. It is basically a story-of-the-week show where Keller and McCalister drive around the country looking for McCallister's daughter and eventually get involved in some local dust-up between (usually) a damsel in distress against the local bad guy(s). 

It does take a lot of suspension of disbelief on many levels to watch the show, including buying that either Van Cleef or Van Patten had anything close to martial arts skill (which you could see during the extreme close-ups during the fight scenes that they did not). Or, buying the fact that the McCallister character, who would walk around as himself in broad daylight beating up the bad guys, would need to change into his ninja uniform at night to beat up the same bad guys, with his same apprentice in tow (who was not in a ninja uniform). And even when he was in uniform he was always pulling his mask down, so there was never any real disguising who he was. And, of course, there was the carrying around tons of illegal weapons.

The Blu-Ray set is a three-disc set. The A/V transfer is okay but not wonderful. It is about as good a transfer as you would expect for an old 1980s TV show that was canceled halfway through its first season. The only extras included on the set are trailers for a handful of the Westerns that Van Cleef was known for throughout his career, as well as trailers for Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja, the two movies Kasugi had been in at that point.

I think most people who will get this are those who were kids in the 1980s and remember watching it back then. You will definitely not get it because of great writing or acting. Several very recognizable and good character actors and actresses were in the show. Also notable is that a very young Demi Moore had a guest-starring role in the pilot. Still, it was overall a pretty hokey and cheesy show. The pilot episode was even featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The show's silliness is best exemplified by a scene in which one of the characters picks up a piece of uranium and sticks it in his pocket. Ultimately, if you watch it expecting it to be a fun blast from the past, it is enjoyable and even pretty funny. If you are expecting award-winning TV, you will be sorely disappointed.

DVD/TV Series Review: ALF: Season 2

 

The 26-episode second season of ALF aired during the 1987/1988 TV season. The main cast members returned, including Paul Fusco, Max Wright, Anne Schedeen, Andrea Elson, and Benji Gregory. The roles of the Ochmoneks were also increased this season, with John LaMotta and Liz Sheridan getting more screen time and Josh Blake recurring throughout the season.

The DVD set is a four-disc set. It only contains the episodes and does not have any bonus features. The episodes can be played with English captions. Ultimately, the show continues to be a good sitcom. Most episodes have self-contained storylines that are resolved by the end of the episode, but the season includes some two-part episodes. The show is family-friendly, with mostly innocent jokes, although a few more adult-oriented jokes will probably go over most kids' heads. If you watched the show when it was originally on the air, it is a nice blast from the past (especially if you were a kid back in the 1980s). Regardless, if you are looking for a nice, family-friendly sitcom, this is worth the time to watch.

DVD/TV Series Review: ALF: Season 1

 

The first season of ALF consisted of 26 episodes that aired during the 1986-1987 TV season and starred Max Wright, Anne Schedeen, Andrea Elson, Benji Gregory, John LaMotta, Liz Sheridan, and Paul Fusco (who is the voice and puppeteer of ALF). The show's premise is that an alien life form (or ALF) from the planet Melmack crash-lands in the San Fernando Valley of California into the garage of the Tanner family. They end up taking ALF (real name Gordon Shumway) in as a member of the family, and hilarity ensues. 

The DVD set is a four-disc set, with the episodes spread substantially evenly across the discs. There are no bonus features, but the episodes have English captions. The show is a fairly standard procedural sitcom, with each episode (aside from the occasional two-part episodes) having a self-contained storyline. It is a family-friendly sitcom that both kids and adults can enjoy. Some of the jokes are definitely aimed at adults and will go over the heads of most kids, but for the most part, there is nothing that is inappropriate for kids in the show. Some of the jokes in the show are very topical to the mid to late 1980s, which definitely dates it. On the whole, however, it holds up pretty well nearly 40 years after it aired. It is definitely worth the time to watch, especially if you enjoyed it as a kid.

DVD/Movie Review: Private School

 

Private School is a coming-of-age comedy from 1983 starring Phoebe Cates, Betsy Russell, Matthew Modine, Kathleen Wihote, and Ray Walston. The best way I can describe this movie is a combination of Porky's and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, yet nowhere near as good as either of them. However, if you were a boy anywhere near puberty in the 1980s this was one of the movies you always hoped came on cable late at night when you got to stay up late. The script and acting are atrocious. Even though the movie had some young stars who would go on to be relatively good actors, they were not given much to work with, even by teen sex comedy standards. There were also some whose careers never made it out of the 1980s. It has about every 80s movie cliche you can imagine (right down to the cheesy music montage). 

The DVD is very bare-bones. There are no extras such as deleted scenes, making-of featurettes, or the like. Realistically, given that it was not one of the major teen comedies of the 1980s and is far more of a cult classic, it is not surprising that it did not get a more expensive DVD release.

The two best things about the movie are Betsy Russell and having some relatively good songs on the soundtrack. Phoebe Cates was the big star in the movie, coming off her role in Fast Times. And although she was the "sexy one" in that movie, she plays the rather bland "good girl" in this one. She is of course still gorgeous and did show a little bit toward the end of the movie, but Betsy Russell is the one who amps up the sex factor here. Ultimately you know what you get with this. It is not great by any means. Do not expect an Academy Award winner, but if you fall within the demographic who remembers this movie from your youth, you can have a good laugh at how good you probably thought it was when you were young and fondly remember ogling Betsy.

DVD/Movie Review: 10

 

10 is a movie starring Bo Derek, Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Dee Wallace, and Brian Dennehy. In the movie, Moore plays a man named George Webber who is a famous music composer going through a mid-life crisis. He sees a young couple getting married and becomes obsessed with the bride (played by Derek). He discovers that the couple is going on a honeymoon in Mexico and follows them to the resort. It is partly a comedy and partly a drama about a guy discovering that he is content with the life he has. 

All the hype around this movie was about Bo Derek and rocketed her to a 1980s sex symbol. This was one of her first movies and she did look spectacular in it, but what is lost in all that hype was the fact that it was a funny movie about a guy going through a midlife crisis. What makes it funny is that Dudley Moore was not a typical leading man.  You do have to keep in mind this was made in the late 1970s and the humor in it is very different than it is in today's comedies (even the good ones). Whether or not you will find it entertaining is completely subjective. There is a little bit of nudity and some sexual content (which is tame by today's standards). If you have seen the movie on TV and enjoyed it or just grew up in the era of Bo Derek being a huge sex symbol, it is certainly worth a DVD purchase.

The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series

 

This is the complete series of the campy superhero series The Greatest American Hero, starring William Katt, Connie Sellica, and Robert Culp, that aired on ABC from 1981-1983. The series was created by Stephen J. Cannell to ride the wave of popularity (and in some ways spoof) the original Superman movie, which came out a few years before this aired. The premise of the show was that a regular guy named Ralph Hinley (his last name was originally Hinkley, but his last name was changed after the assassination attempt on Ronald Regan), played by Katt, who is a high-school teacher is given a suit that gives him superpowers (by aliens) but he loses the instructions so he has no idea how it really works. He teams up with an FBI agent (Culp) and his attorney girlfriend (Sellica) to fight crime. So, the show is really part superhero series, part buddy cop drama, and part comedy. The show is mainly a procedural following a case-of-the-week format in which the stories are resolved by the end of the episode. But, the show occasionally calls back to something from a prior episode.

Since the show aired in the very early 1980s, the special effects were pretty cheesy, and the writing in some areas is hilarious today for different reasons than they were when the show aired. For example, the kids they were trying to portray as tough or bad were not threatening in any way, shape, or form. Many of the storylines were Cold War-themed given the era. Because of that, if you did not at least grow up around that time you probably will not get all the references. 

What I liked about the show is that it never tried to take itself too seriously. And while it did go off on some strange tangents (like the electricity monster episode) it managed to stay entertaining throughout its run. I think all three of the main actors did a great job with their characters. William Katt really did feel ridiculous in the suit, and that came across in his performance. Robert Culp was great as the chauvinistic "my way or the highway" FBI agent, and Connie Sellica was more than just eye candy on the show. Many times Sellica played the "straight man" role to Culp's eccentric character even more than Katt did. As different as the characters were, it seemed all the actors had very good chemistry which came across in the performances, and you bought that the characters really cared about each other. And the relationship between the characters was really what made the series work even when it could get a bit silly.

Some reviews on Amazon mention that the music was not the same as when originally aired. I was too young when the show was actually on TV to remember any of the music other than the main theme song. However, as is the case with many older shows, the studio likely ran into copyright issues when putting together the DVD release and had to change some of the songs that were played. Chances are the lack of original songs will not be an issue for a lot of people since they did not seem to use canned instrumental replacement music (for the most part anyway), but it may be for some. Personally, I would rather have the series available on DVD without the original music than not have it at all. The only unfortunate thing about the series is that it never had a proper ending. It only had a 13-episode final season, and the way it ended seems like it was canceled abruptly halfway through season three. So the final episode of the series really feels just like any other regular episode. Even though the show is dated, it holds up pretty well (but not perfectly) and is definitely worth the time to watch.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt

 

If you take portions of the plots of American Ninja 1 and 2, combine them with any other martial arts movies that involve a tournament (e.g., Enter The Dragon and The Karate Kid), and don't do any of them as well, you get American Ninja 3. This is the third movie in the American Ninja franchise created by Cannon Films after the popularity of the "Ninja Trilogy" that starred Sho Kosugi. The first American Ninja was a pretty big hit (for a low-budget martial arts movie) and the second one was more of a flop. The first two movies starred Michael Dudikoff as Joe Armstrong, the titular American Ninja. For this movie, Dudikoff's contract was up and he was replaced with David Bradley, who played Sean Davidson another (convenient) American Ninja. Dudikoff's character is named dropped once during the movie, but that is it.

The plot, to the extent there is one, is recycled yet barely comprehensible. The main bad guy is another terrorist nicknamed The Cobra (played by Marjoe Gortner) who is making biological weapons and genetically enhanced super ninjas. One of the main problems with the movie is that there is no "main" bad ninja. There are just a bunch of rando ninjas that would be expendable henchmen in any other ninja movie. So, the "final battle" is just silly. Steve James is the only one from the first two movies to appear in this one, reprising his role as Curtis Jackson, who is now out of the Army and attending a karate tournament where he meets Davidson.

The A/V transfer is okay, but not great. It is definitely a step up from VHS quality, but as you would expect with a low-budget B-movie, it did not get a great restoration. For extras, there is a 13-minute behind-the-scenes featurette that includes interviews with the writer, director, producer, and Dudikoff who basically says it was not his decision not to come back for this movie. Then there is a 6-minute portion of David Bradley's screen test and the theatrical trailer. Unlike the blu-ray releases for the first two movies, this one does not have a commentary track.

The only real reason to get this movie is if you have the others and want to keep your collection complete. The action is fine and Bradley certainly could handle the martial arts. But, the writing is horrible and as a result, the acting is pretty shitty too.  It is something you can watch once and never watch again and/or just have it on in the background while you are cooking or cleaning.