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I'll probably mouth off about a few things. Like Volume One of "The Best of Abbott & Costello" dvd set. It's packaging isn't spectacular but the price is right (...I hate that show...) It doesn't have much in the way of extras, just the original trailers but the quaility of the restoration is very well done. These dvd sets(4 in all) only feature the films Abbott & Costello made for Universal Pictures, excluding of course IT AIN'T HAY which is involved in some type of copyright lawsuit (It has something to do with the fact that the plot is based on a story by Damon Runyon). Anyway, the dvds are cool and just recently all the episodes of their classic TV show were released. As a side note I happen to think that THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW is the single greatest TV show ever made! But more about that some other time...
On that note,most Abbott & Costello fans complain about LOST IN ALASKA or their last film together DANCE WITH ME HENRY as being the team's worse but for me it has to be the movie in which they made their very first appearance: ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS! No wonder it bombed in it's initial opening in 1940. It's a really stupid love story with music and the male leads, Robert Cummings and Alan Jones (who later would co-star in 2 Marx Bros. films) act like idiots! If it wasn't for Bud & Lou this dog would be long forgotten! Oddly, the original story on which it's based (Love Insurance) was written by Earl Derr Biggers who created Charlie Chan!
A DANGEROUS ENTRY
Unless it's THE MATRIX beware of movies with 2 directors. Such is the case with THE DANGEROUS (1994), a violent. disjoined New Orleans based crime drama featuring Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa as a ninja like assassin out for revenge on the shits who killed his sister. As I've said before Tagawa should be in better movies but who listens to me? Michael Pare' (who doesn't deserve to be in better movies) is a cop investigating the case. I mean does this guy Pare' really think anyone cares that he has an accent over his name? No wonder he makes crappy movies like this. Nobody wants to bother to spell his name correctly!
Smooth skinned challenged Robert Davi plays an ex-cop (?) who comes back from the Mid-West (?) to help. He teams up with Pare' and gives new meaning to the word "dicks".
This plays like two different movies with two different storylines (remember: two directors!). Juan Fernadez (who started his career in movies like Doris Wishman's THE AMAZING TRANSPLANT) is a mob boss. John Savage (who apparently has an agent who cares nothing about his career) is a hitman who guts a guy while opera music plays. Joel Grey (proving that even Oscar winners can hit rock bottom) is a grubby informer named Flea. Elliot Gloud is a weird movie projectionist with a hair net. Former Playboy centerfold (an ex-OJ girlfriend) Paula Barbieri is the female lead but doesn't even take off her shoes!! Who made this movie? A Benedictine Monk???? The one good scene takes place in a movie theater. Producer David Winters is responsible for a lot of junk......
Sounds Like A Horror Movie But It's Not.......
THE WILD BEES-(Divoke' vcely)-(2001)-From the Czech Republic and a first time director (Bohdan Slama) comes this quirky sometimes bizarre look at a small town and it's unusual inhabitants (including a Micheal Jackson impersonator). Everyone has a story and a lot of drinking goes on (suposedly the cast drank heavily during production!). Interesting.....
And a quickie:
T.R.Y.-2003-Ok China/Japan co-production features Ken Watanabe (right before THE LAST SAMURAI) as a renegade military officer involved in an illegal arms deal. Yuji Oda (from TOKYO LOVE STORY) is the hero. The director Kazuki Omori also made GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE (1989) and GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH.
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Posted by CavedogRob on 2008-04-23 22:02:15 | Rating: | Views: 47
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I've seen Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa in a few films. The most famous one I've seen with him in would be "Mortal Kombat", based on the video game.
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Posted by SubTomato
on 2008-04-24 19:18:19
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