New version of Longest Yard isn't bad
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By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
We have a very mixed bag of DVDs this week.
The Frank Sinatra Show High Hopes
Hardcore fans of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bing Crosby should be interested in this complete broadcast of a television special from 1958. Complete with vintage commercials watch announcer John Cameron Swayze torture defenseless Timex watches the show also features Mitzi Gaynor and a cameo from Jimmy Durante.
There's precious little banter between the guests and the production values are fairly minimal. What you get are 14 musical numbers with various configurations of the stars. For music fans this is a double-edged sword it's great to see a performance by some seminal pop music figures that has long been buried, but the sound quality, although acceptable, is no where near what DVD fans are used to hearing.
The visual quality is also acceptable and appears to have come from a 16-mm kinescope it's not as sharp as it could be, but it won't cause you any headaches.
For more information, log onto www.mvd.com.
The Longest Yard
The rule of thumb in the motion pictures business is that sequels and remakes seldom generate the kind of impact that the original version did. There are exceptions to this rule, but I'm afraid the Adam Sandler version of the Burt Reynolds prison football film falls well within the rule.
The original film was a drama that evolved into a comedy. It had a weight about it that rang true, which made the comedy better. This film, perhaps because of the star, is a comedy from the beginning. It is a more politically correct film that obscures the center of the first film's story how a man earns redemption.
Standing on it own, the new film isn't bad. Adam Sandler may not be the most believable choice to portray a pro football player, but at least he tones down his trademark spazmo characterization and tries to act.
Former West Springfield theater director James Cromwell yes, he was part of the former Stage West, when it was on the grounds of the Big E is suitably ominous as the warden and Chris Rock gets the laughs as Caretaker, the prisoner who can procure anything at a price.
It's heartening to see Burt Reynolds involved as well. At least he got a nice role and payday and the knowledge that his version was still the best.
For more info, log onto www.paramount.com/homeentertainment.com.
Drawn Together: Season One
This latest attempt by Comedy Central to create an adult animation series is a miserable sack of dirty jokes and truly tasteless ideas.
Now I love good tasteless humor the films of John Waters, the more extreme Monty Python material, stand-ups guys like Dave Attell but this series is done with such a heavy hand that the material never makes it over the top, where tasteless material has to go.
It has all of the charm of a listening to conversations among seventh grade boys in a locker room.
The premise is that this a reality show in which a group of animated characters comes to live. The characters are parodies of "real" cartoon characters and the humor is supposed to come from seeing these parodies do things you're not supposed to do in animation.
Avoid this one like the plague.
But if you must know more, log onto www.paramount.com/homeentertainment.com.
The Hammer Horror Series
Joy! Just in time for Halloween comes this bargain-priced you can find it as low as $19 eight film set with some of the best horror and suspense films produced in the 1960s by the late and lamented Hammer Studios of Great Britain.
Produced with an eye to style, these handsome films featured performances by Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Oliver Reed among others. Cushing and Reed are well represented here there no films with Lee and some of their best Hammer moments are showcased.
The eight films include several of my favorites, including Brides of Dracula with Cushing in the role of vampire hunter Van Helsing once again. Cushing also has star turns in Night Creatures a non-horror film, despite the title and The Evil of Frankenstein.
Reed has a nice supporting role in Night Creatures and is the star of Curse of the Werewolf and Paranoiac.
The print material is beautiful and the films look and sound better than they have in years.
What I really like about this set is that it gives younger film fans to see two performers whom they know only through late in life performances - Cushing as Darth Vader's boss in Star Wars (the first or fourth one however you might count) and Reed as the old warrior in Gladiator.
Log onto www.universalstudioshomeentertainment.com for more information.
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