I didn’t think it was actually possible, but the CW and Warner actually managed to create yet another “La Femme Nikita” television series, and one that has managed to be the most entertaining yet. After the critically panned “Point of No Return” and the instantly forgettable Peta Wilson vehicle “La Femme Nikita,” I was admittedly very skeptical a network could tackle the Luc Besson action masterpiece and provide a watchable spin on it. Admittedly season one of “Nikita” isn’t perfect. The first three or four episodes meander in to romance melodrama and the writing is pretty clumsy all things considered, but once the season and the show finds its footing it manages to be a rather entertaining and dark spy thriller. Maggie Q finally gets her due leading the series “Nikita” which takes a new spin on the Luc Besson picture of the same name.
Category Archives: Collector’s Den
Full Moon Friday: William Shatner's Full Moon Fright Night (DVD)
Ah two of my favorite things: Full Moon films, and William Shatner’s over the top comedy shtick that no one finds funny but him. You have to love “Full Moon Fright Night,” the 2002 television series that originally aired on the Scifi Channel in America and lasted about eight or nine episodes is finally here to collect on DVD for rabid collectors of Full Moon Fright Flicks, and what collection it is. For the first boxed set we’re given “The Vampire Journals,” “Head of the family,” and “Hideous!” all to the tune of William Shatner and a monster butler bringing us the frights in only the best manner possible a la Joe Bob Briggs.
Shatner isn’t exactly known for advertent comedy so it’s a treat to see him genuinely chewing scenery for these productions while introducing us to Full Moon movies that are quite terrible. Episode one brings us to the foot steps of “Vampire Journals” is very much in the tradition of “Subspecies” as an existential chronicle of a young man who staves off blood lust and pain in Europe as a vampire and charts his existence day by day including facts about his fellow vampires and what occurs in the life of such a being. Shatner occasionally interrupts to bring us a commercial break, but the films remain generally untarnished to the breaks offering their own Full Moon magic that make them terrible to the average movie goer but entertaining to any Full Moon buff.
Transformers: Beast Wars Season 1 (DVD)
Shout! Factory releases one of the finer animated relics of the nineties: “Beast Wars” a veritable buffet of trademark Transformers tropes that pits Autobot against Decepticon except this time they’re in animal form and are now known as the Maximals and the Predacons, two warring races of transformers descendents whom are all marooned on a distant planet from Cybertron where the two races are now fighting for control of the mysterious fossil fuel known as Energon. As a fan boy of the transformers at one time I can very much remember indulging myself in the saga of the Beast Wars.
The Best in 80's TV on DVD! (Courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment)
THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
What with the remake and retread craze at an all time high, I can definitely picture some halfwit second rate comic actor taking up the mantle for William Katt as the next “Greatest American Hero” in a big budget mediocre action comedy. Almost like a lame version of Superman, “Greatest American Hero” is never quite sure what it wants to be. Sometimes it’s an honest to goodness tale of a humble man being given an amazing power allowing him to fight crime and save the world. Sometimes it just takes a step back and laughs at itself for all the right reasons. William Katt gives a surprisingly dignified performance as a local school teacher Ralph Hinckley tasked with teaching a very rowdy and violent special education class.
As fate would have it, Katt and his class happen across a reckless FBI agent Bill Maxwell who almost runs him down in the middle of a field trip during the night when they’re stranded on the road. Hinckley and Maxwell are witness to a major event as a UFO beams down… a suit to them. Not just any suit, but a super suit! They ask Hinckley to take the suit and save the world or it will disintegrate. Why? Who knows? Lacking any apparent fashion sense, Katt dons the alien super suit forced to team with the Maxwell and the result is wacky and ridiculous.
Best of Sesame Spoofs 1&2 (DVD)
With almost two hours of assorted sketches, “Spoofs!” from Sesame Street is probably one of their most pleasant titles. From “True Blood” (True Mud here), to “Mad Men,” right down to “Columbo,” nothing is off limits and they make great usage of adult shows and turn them in to constructive segments that can utilize lessons given by the show. Oscar the Grouch teaches Mike Rowe how to sort our property out in “Dirtiest Jobs,” and we learn how to rhyme with “True Mud” where mud is confused for spud, dud, and thud but there’s no mention of blood. It’s funny and not crud.
Drive-In Cult Classics: 32 Movie Collection (DVD)
Are we really going to review thirty two movies in one review? Well yes and no. For years I’ve always found the boxed sets from discount chains like Mill Creek to be something of a peculiarity. Sometimes they can be really cheap starter kits for prospective movie buyers. You can find them at discount stores or garage sales and for anyone looking for an untouched two dollar version of “Night of the Living Dead,” they can surely find something of use for a set.
Vintage Erotica Anno 1960 (DVD)
With the release of “Vintage Erotica Anno 1960,” Cult Epics unleashes twelve underground 16mm short porn films that not only show the free wheeling fun loving of the early sixties but the evolution of the porno film before our very eyes. As the smut and taboo material of threesomes and orgies became ever more frequent in the underground smut circuit, we saw the beginnings of the classic porn formula where it was less about voyeurism and teasing the audience as it was about rough hardcore sex.