Jamie Foxx What’d He Say? By Brad Balfour With the incredible buzz about the Ray Charles bio pic, Ray, comedian Jamie Foxx’s work has been hailed as a Best Actor Oscar shoo-in even though he’s also nominated for his work in Collateral). And that’s no joke; this former Texan has made the transition from TV funny man (In Living Color/The … Continue reading
Family Business The Complete Second Season (Showtime-2005) It seems that reality TV will pounce upon any sordid or degrading subject that might drum up some voyeuristic interest in a holier-than-thou audience base. So, it was only a matter of time that there would be a show focusing on the circus world behind the scenes of pornography. … Continue reading
The Flintstones The Complete Third Season (1962-1963) (Warner Brothers-2005) YABBA DABBA DOO … Everyone’s favorite modern stone age family are celebrated on The Flintstones – The Complete Third Season. Focusing on construction worker Fred Flintstone and his curvaceous wife Wilma, his “bestest” buddy Barney Rubble and his better half Betty; the Flintstones took the changing mores and sexual and financial landscape of the early sixties and transplanted … Continue reading
Hee Haw Premiere Episode and Laffs (Time/Life-2004) In the summer of 1969, the American Dream seemed to be approaching its waking stage. The awesome miracle of man’s landing on the moon that July only made the earth’s reality grimmer: the war in Vietnam, protests and violence in the streets, Woodstock and rock music, hippies, the … Continue reading
The Greatest ’70s Cop Shows (Columbia Tri-Star-2004) It’s a baffling mystery: this DVD is called The Greatest ‘70s Cop Shows, and yet Columbo is nowhere to be found here. What we do get is the ‘70s sloppy seconds: Starsky and Hutch, Charlie’s Angels, SWAT, The Rookies and Police Woman. Don’t bother looking for the quality you think you remember: good writing and believable situations … Continue reading
Gilligan’s Island The Complete Second Season – 1965 (Warner Home Video-2005) Back in the mid-Sixties, both Gilligan’s Island and The Beatles were the rage, infiltrating the public consciousness. Five decades onward, both remain singularly distinctive and arresting public icons whose golden legacy continues to endure and richly thrive. Gilligan’s Island-The Complete Second Season (Warner Home Video) reveals the … Continue reading
Sex and the City The Complete First Season (HBO-2000) The Complete Second Season (HBO-2001) The Complete Third Season (HBO-2002) Sex and the City is the story of four gay men frolicking in a fantasy fairyland version of Manhattan. From its hideous opening credits of a badly lit and cosmetically starved Sarah Jessica Parker (admit it: doesn’t … Continue reading
JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS PLAYS A PERFECT MATCH by Brad Balfour For a young actor working with a master director like Woody Allen becomes an honor; it’s an even greater opportunity to perform for him in his first non-American made feature and a drama no less. In Match Point, Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers gets to play … Continue reading
After School Specials 1974-1976 (BCI Eclipse-2004) In the early 1960s, FCC chairman Newton Minnow called television “a vast wasteland,” accusing the entertainment industry of producing mind-numbing and mediocre offerings, as gray and dull as dishwater. Even President Kennedy agreed that the medium was not reaching its full potential, and in effort to balance things out he … Continue reading
Everybody Loves Raymond The Complete First Season (HBO-2004) The terrific Everybody Loves Raymond is the situation comedy structure stripped down to its barest elements. Because the sitcom genre peaked with Seinfeld and had nowhere else to go, the Raymond creators instead traveled back to the ‘50s, to the very inception of this odd but immortal art form, and hit the refresh button. Its … Continue reading
PopEntertainmentblog.com 