<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=oklahgazet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0035V35P8&fc1=000000&IS2=1 Not to sound like the beginning of a K-tel ad, but, hey, remember the ’80s? That was a time when ninja movies were all the rage (then again, so was the breakdance film), when efforts like “Ninja III: The Domination” could open wide at a theater near you, and then enjoy a long, […]
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Ripley’s Believe It or Not!: The Complete Vitaphone Shorts Collection
At some point in your life, you’ve likely read a “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” strip. If you do a fair amount of tourist-type traveling, you may have even visited one of the dozens of Ripley’s museums around the world. But unless you’re pushing 90 years old, you’ve probably never taken in one of the […]
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C.O.P.S.: Volume Two
Despite the name, “C.O.P.S.” is not an animated spin-off of the Fox reality series. Rather, like virtually every cartoon of the late 1980s, its source material is a line of toys. Neither really caught on. The acronym stands for Central Organization of Police Specialists, which is an overly detailed way of just saying “police.” The […]
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Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
For his directorial debut, “The Office” star John Krasinski adapted David Foster Wallace’s short-story collection “Brief Interviews With Hideous Men.” While slogging through the 80-minute exercise in pretentiousness, I was reminded of another Wallace title: “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.” Krasinski is one of the titular hideous men interviewed by Sara (a […]
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Small Wonder: The Complete First Season
If memory serves correct, “Small Wonder” was one of the first sitcoms to premiere on syndication “? that is, not home to any network. In 1985, my brothers and I watched it regularly. Now that its first season has hit DVD, I have to wonder, “What were we thinking?” Like many shows of our childhood, […]
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The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Set 2
Anyone who watched anything on PBS in the 1970s will receive an immediate jolt of nostalgia for the Thames title screen that prefaces every episode of “Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.” You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? I was not, however, familiar with this particular public-television series from 1971-1973, probably because it would hold […]
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Steven Seagal: Lawman – The Complete Season One
For a reality series that takes the premise of “Cops” and simply adds a thick, gooey layer of Steven Seagal up top, A&E’s “Steven Seagal: Lawman” is strangely unsatisfying. As inane as it sounds, the once-mighty action star has been a reserve deputy with the Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish for some two decades. But now that […]
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The Princess and the Frog
Sometimes, old-fashioned can seem downright revolutionary. “The Princess and the Frog,” Disney’s first hand-drawn feature since 2004, is a reminder that the high-tech wizardry of computer animation, motion-capture and stop-motion doesn’t mean much without a compelling story. The movie is irresistible because it understands the basics: strong narrative, gorgeous animation and characters that are well-drawn, […]
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Castle in the Sky/Kiki’s Delivery Service/My Neighbor Totoro
<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=oklahgazet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B002ZTQVHK&fc1=000000&IS2=1 Japan’s master animator, Hayao Miyazaki, has been making feature films for nearly 25 years, but has only recently become an “overnight” success in America. Alongside his recent “Ponyo,” Disney has re-released three of his films from the Eighties: “Castle in the Sky,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “My Neighbor Totoro.” Each of the three […]
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Clash of the Gods
Before titans clash in theaters in 3-D next month, bone up on your Greek mythology with “Clash of the Gods.” The sound-alike series is a History Channel presentation that’s fun for the entire family. Each of the three-disc set’s nine episodes spend nearly an hour on a mythological character, from Zeus to Odysseus, focusing on […]