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"THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON" DVD Review by Kevin Carr MOVIE: ***** (out of 5 stars) DVD EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5 stars) Not Rated Available on DVD January 4 Studio: Warner Bros. Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Several years ago, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington started doing a podcast where they talk about random topics. It became a hit online, and now HBO has animated selected episodes and broadcast them as a television series. Listen to Gervais and Merchant pick Pilkington’s brain about a strange assortment of topics, from population control and dinosaurs to Pilkington’s oddly orb-shaped head.
WHAT I LIKED
With complete understanding that I may be overstating my love for this show, let me say this... Funniest DVD ever!
Not since I put “Anchorman” into my DVD player years ago, planning on falling asleep to it and being kept awake by my own laughter, have I found myself laughing so hard at a television series. I know that this is nothing more than Flash animations of Ricky Gervais’ podcast that he’s been doing for years with Merchant and Pilkington, but not having listened to it before, this was remarkably fresh and achingly funny.
The concept is so simple... just a few guys chewing the fat. In a seemingly random assortment of topics, Gervais and his team find humor in everything. Of course, the butt of most of the jokes is Karl Pilkington, and really the contributions by Gervais and Merchant is just their incredulous reaction. But it’s a brilliant chemistry that is so rare in television, radio or podcasts.
Even if you listen to the podcast and this is a rehash of material, there’s the cute animations to go along with it. While Karl Pilkington waxes poetic about everything from aging backwards to the latest in monkey news, the audience is taken along an animated journey that illustrates the bizarre world of Pilkington’s brain.
“The Ricky Gervais Show” is easily one of the funniest things on television, whether it be broadcast, basic cable or pay TV.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
There’s not enough. I want more, more, more. And I need to subscribe to the podcast now.
DVD FEATURES
The most disappointing thing about this DVD set is the scant special features on it. There’s an animated promo for the Comedy Gala in the U.K. as well as the storyboards from an episode, but aside from this, the bonus material is bollocks (as Gervais might say).
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Fans of Ricky Gervais and his brand of humor.
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"BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 8 MOTION COMIC" Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars) BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars) Not Rated Studio: Fox Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
When Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” left the air at the end of season seven, the world had changed. There were hundreds of new slayers, and Buffy was looking towards a bigger, more fantastical future. While the television show didn’t get an eighth season, Whedon continued the stories in comic book form. Now, those 19 installments in the ongoing story are animated in motion comic style and available on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time.
WHAT I LIKED
Anyone who knows me and my tastes knows I’ve never been a fan of Joss Whedon’s work. With the exception of the “Toy Story” script (of which I’m unsure how much he contributed), I’ve never liked his writing. I’ve also never watched the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” television show, though I am told by pretty much every genre fan I know that I should. (To be honest, I always liked the original movie version with Kristy Swanson quite a bit.)
But I respect the fans, and I respect their love for Whedon, his words and his characters even if it’s a love I do not share. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Motion Comic” is not a good way to start the Buffy experience, of that I am positive. However, even without the pre-knowledge of the first seven seasons, I can see the continued use of all the characters the fans love.
What’s neat about putting something in comic book form (and then later in motion comic form) is that you are not constrained by special effects and production value. Whatever you can imagine and draw can be part of the story. The use of fantasy elements in Season 8 has been taken to a high degree here because they can. This allows the story to be opened up to the farthest reaches of Whedon’s imagination. So in this sense, Season 8 is one of the most visionary chapters in the Buffy saga.
As a motion comic, the stories flow, and the art looks fantastic, especially in high definition on a big screen. And while you don’t have the kick-ass kung-fu action you’d get in the show, it still looks slick and brings the pages to life.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
As I said before, if you’re curious about Buffy, this is not the place to start. You will be terribly confused, even if you have a passing knowledge of the character. But most likely, the vast majority of the people that are going to watch this motion comic have already bought, read and re-read the actual comics.
My two big gripes with this Blu-ray is that they don’t use the original voices from the series. I understand this was probably a budgetary issue, but how busy can Sarah Michelle Gellar really be? And couldn’t Eliza Dushku have found some time while in the looping station for “Dollhouse” to read some of her lines? You’d think Whedon would have been able to swing this.
Finally, for the most part, the motion comic animation is cool. However, there are places where the shakycam handheld style puts too much motion in the motion comic. And some of the magnified images do tend to pixilate, especially when viewed on an HDTV.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
The Blu-ray also comes with the DVD. Both discs include the featurette “Under Buffy’s Spell” which talks to fans at Comic-Con about the show and the comics, “The Buffy Trivia Experience” you can play along with the feature, the test pilot and covers gallery.
The DVD includes a “Create Your Own Buffy Comic with Tooncast Studio” for your DVD-ROM.
Finally, the whole package is bundled with a mini comic book of the first issue.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Acolytes of Whedon and Buffy fans the world over.
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"ARMY WIVES: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON" DVD Review by Kevin Carr MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars) DVD EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5 stars) Not Rated Studio: ABC Studios Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
The Lifetime original series about the women who support the soldiers at the fictional Fort Marshall continues into its fourth season. With Denise and Frank dealing with the aftermath of their son’s psychological problems and Joan recovering from her injuries, the families’ lives are troublesome. Add to this two pregnancies in the show and a redeployment, while Claudia Joy and Pamela try to pursue their own careers, and you have a week-to-week drama that has engaged fans.
WHAT I LIKED
As a secondary show, this series has grown on me. What started out as the lesser half of the FOX series “The Unit” has matured into a sometimes cheesy but overly charming series. It totally fits into the template of Lifetime Television, being a show for women about women, but if you can get past the gender focus, it’s not a bad little series.
Even though this series does focus on the female viewer, it does its best to keep things interesting to the husbands and boyfriends that are forced to watch it as well. In this sense, “Army Wives” works to develop the male characters, and not just the stay-at-home dad character (who was originally an Army wife himself though has become less of the focus). There’s stories for the husbands as well as the kids, and a decent amount of military focus.
In the end, I do respect the show because it is really helping to improve the image of the American military rather than tear it down, which seems to be the sad focus of some Hollywood properties nowadays. Yeah, it takes the drama and the story twists a little too far at times, but it does its best to honor the men and women fighting as well as those who stay at home.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
There are elements to this show that reveal it as a secondary production, along the lines of some of the series you’ll see on ABC Family. In trying to honor the military, the show gets overly polite and faux supportive. There’s also some pretty corny plot twists and characters that ring more in tune with a daytime soap opera than a quality prime-time series.
But I guess it is a soap opera at its heart.
DVD FEATURES
The four-disc DVD set includes an outtake reel, plus three featurettes. “Safety First” focuses on how the cast and crew bring an episode to life. “Army Wives Get Cookin’” features a cooking class for the cast. “Military Jargon” is a fun quiz with the cast to see how many of the non-official military terms they know.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Women who like television for women.
