Elastic Pop

On July 15, 2008, MGM Home Entertainment will release the haunting horror flick Asylum on DVD! This is director David R.Ellis' follow up to Snakes on a Plane.

In all honesty, I approached 10,000 BC with a healthy dose of skepticism. I wanted the film to be good, but I had my doubts even before I turned on my DVD player. The film was directed by Roland Emmerich, the fellow who brought us the memorable Independence Day (1996), but then proceeded to helm one of the worst film adaptations in recent memory, Godzilla in 1998.

Emmerich is nothing if not consistent. The man always thinks big. Most of his previous films including Independence Day, Godzilla, The Patriot, and The Day After Tomorrow are huge spectacles with lots of CGI, impressive effects, big casts and little plot. Emmerich tends to work on such a grand scale, that he lets the overall size of the project overwhelm the plot of the film. With 10,000 BC, Emmerich has fallen into that trap again.

Originally released on December 25, 1963, The Sword in the Stone holds the distinction of being the last animated feature released while Walt Disney was still alive. The film, based on T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone, tends to get overlooked when film historians consider Disney's animated film output in the pre-computer era; Most agree that the studios golden age spanned from 1938 (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) to 1959 (Sleeping Beauty.)

Film historians will continue to debate whether The Sword in the Stone deserves classic status in the Disney animation cannon, but one thing is certain: the film had a profound impact on many children of the eighties. I can remember sitting in a movie theater as a young girl in the early eighties and being absolutely enraptured by the story of young Arthur, (known as "Wart" to his family and friends) and his quest to be King.

Dynasty, like Dallas, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest was one of the quintessential eighties guilty pleasure shows. You didn't watch them for great acting or smart writing. It was the drama intrigue, cat fighting and endless bed-hopping that kept audiences coming back for more.

Created by Richard and Esther Shapiro, Dynasty revolved around the Carrington's, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado. When the series premiered on January 12, 1981 on ABC, Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) was preparing to marry the younger Krystle Jennings (Linda Evans). Krystle was beautiful, but lacked the cultured upbringing that many in the Carrington household thought any wife of Blake should possess. The couple met when she took a job as a secretary at his large company, Denver-Carrington. Blake's daughter Fallon (Pamela Sue Martin) resented her and the household staff was openly patronizing. The only support she received was from Blake's homosexual son Steven (Al Corley), who felt adrift in the family despite his position as heir to his father's position.

The Odd Couple is a kind of rarity in television. Based on the 1968 film that starred Jack Lemmon as Felix and Walter Matthau as Oscar, many feel that the series starring Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar equaled or surpassed the quality of the film. Both Tony Randall and Jack Klugman received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for each of the shows five seasons. Even more amazing, ABC canceled The Odd Couple at the end of each season during the series five year run because of poor ratings, only to bring the show back after it scored so well in the Neilsen's during summer reruns.

When a hit series enters its ninth season, it reasonable to start wondering if the show has begun to run its course, or as the saying goes, "jumped the shark." As the 2002-2003 season of ER, its ninth, many wondered how the departures of Anthony Edwards (Dr. Mark Green) and Eriq LaSalle (Dr. Peter Benton) would affect the show.

As season eight concluded, Dr. Carter (Noah Wylie), now the senior doctor in the E.R., faced his first challenge, as a possible case of small pox was detected in the ER Season nine begins right where the previous season ended. Having brought in the CDC, he and nurse Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney) along with doctors Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen (Ming-Na) and Greg Pratt (Mekhi Phifer) are now under quarantine for two weeks. In the meantime, the rest of the staff is struggling to evacuate patients to other hospitals. In the chaos, crusty Chief of staff Dr. Robert Romano (Paul McCrane) has his arm sheared off by a helicopter. With that, the ninth season of ER is off and running.

After watching Rails & Ties, I couldn't help but feel the film could've and should've been better. Rails & Ties marks the directorial debut of Alison Eastwood (daughter of Clint), and she should be applauded for taking on such difficult material for her debut behind the camera. While I found the first thirty five minutes of the film moving and emotionally gripping, not long after that, the plot sunk into a series of melodramatic clichés found in bad television movies.

Tom Stark (Kevin Bacon) is a railroad engineer who doesn't just love his work; it seems to be the thing that defines him as a person. As the film opens, Tom is told he can take a day off to spend time with his wife Megan (Marcia Gay Harden), who has cancer. Tom just wants to work, and boards his beloved train for his shift.

Created by Matt Williams, Carmen Finestra (who both produced The Cosby Show) and David MacFadzean, Home Improvement was based on the standup comedy routine of Tim Allen. The show debuted on September 1, 1991 on ABC and became an instant hit ranking 5th in the Neilsen ratings during the series first season, and never leaving the top ten during the shows entire eight year run.

Tim "The Toolman" Taylor (Tim Allen) is the accident prone host of Tool Time, based in Detroit Michigan. He spends most of his time teasing his co-host Al Borland (Richard Karn), unmercifully. Tim is married to Jill (Patricia Richardson) and they are raising three boys; Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy Jonathan Taylor Thomas), who left the series at the beginning of the eighth season by going off on an environmental research study in Costa Rica. Mark (Taran Noah Smith), the youngest son, grew into an outcast who dressed in dark clothing and was prone to sulky behavior.

The lack of good roles in films for actresses over forty has been an issue almost since cinema began. Through the years, there have always been a few female stars; Katherine Hepburn immediately comes to mind as an actress who could still get a good leading role in an excellent film. For the most part though, women over forty and certainly over fifty are relegated to supporting roles as mothers, grandmothers or kooky neighbors. In contrast men in their forties and fifties are still cast as action heroes and romantic leads, often alongside women fifteen to twenty five years their junior.

Hands down, Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the most talented actors working in films today. He resists the temptation to turn out movie after movie, often taking three, four even five years between big screen performances. However, each time he graces the screen whether he's playing a man with cerebral palsy in My Left Foot (1989), a man wrongly accused of being an IRA terrorist in In the Name of the Father (1993) or a fighter looking to leave the past behind in The Boxer, Day-Lewis always seems to give a mesmerizing performance that makes a film worth watching.