And, in the early ’90s, he starred as the mad doctor in Frankenstein … for TNT, not Kenneth Branagh. Provided you missed it on during its CableACE Award-nominated broadcast, the better-than-average production is now alive — alive! — on MOD DVD from Warner Archive. Bergin’s Dr. Frankenstein is even more enterprising than in the Mary Shelley […]
classic
Posted inArts & Culture
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?: Anniversary Edition
Both sibs are former stars. Baby Jane (Davis) was a child star, “the diminutive dancing Duse from Duluth” who entertained vaudeville audiences until she could no longer get away with a spoiled brat. Blanche (Crawford) became a leading lady of the silver screen later in life, but her glory waned long ago. Now, Blanche is […]
Posted inMusic
Mind the Fox — Songs for the Needy
The 11-track effort has the feel of a product made for and formulated in a dingy basement with dusty floral couches, shag carpet and tacky wood wall paneling … and I mean that in the best of ways. It’s something of a time capsule uncovered from four or five decades back, neither updated nor refurbished […]
Posted inMusic
Rock of ageless
It was as if the birth of Nirvana had never happened. It was as if music never stopped being fun. And catchy. And above all, horny. That’s the power of Lita Ford, Poison and Def Leppard. Maybe I had been living in Colorado too long. Maybe I had been too accustomed to concerts featuring Brooklyn-based […]
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Lisztomania
Almost a year after his death, Warner Archive brings one of his wildest — and that’s saying something — to a long-overdue American DVD release with 1975’s Lisztomania. Based loosely — in every sense of the word — on the life of Franz Liszt, it’s a musical comedy horror sex fantasy unlike any you’ve ever seen. […]
Posted inMusic
Chad Sullins and the Last Call Coalition — Incommunicado
With clear-cut single “Thank God for Jack Daniels,” Sullins positions himself somewhere between Stoney LaRue and Eric Church, executing the whiskey tribute with all the subtlety — and admitted fun — of a Michael Bay film after a charming, vintage-Western introduction. He leads into that some good-ol’-boy politicking in the blistering, if familiar “Straight to […]
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Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie
Of Adult Swim (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) and Funny or Die Presents infamy, comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim play themselves. Having just squandered a billion dollars of the Schlaaang Corporation’s money on a feature film that somehow runs all of three minutes and stars a guy who isn’t really Johnny Depp, […]
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Drive
From the pink, cursive typeface and pulsing, instrumental music of the opening credits, audience members will feel as if something is out of place, as if the movie is just a bit “off.” That’s because director Nicolas Winding Refn (“Bronson”) has immersed this tale in the style of Michael Mann’s “Thief,” rather than today’s “Transporter” […]
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Video Game Reviews
Mortal Kombat WB Games Xbox 360, Playstation 3 “Mortal Kombat” is a throwback to the early/mid- ’90s when people flooded into arcades to fight as their favorite characters. All of the established characters appear in this new version, and the player controls them similarly to their classic versions. As a fighting game, “Kombat” is easy […]