Category: TV DVD Quicktakes (Page 25 of 26)

Mission: Impossible: The Complete Fourth Season

For those still trying to shake the Tom Cruise induced undoing of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, relief comes in the form of the original television series’ complete fourth season, now available on DVD. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to pick up this seven disc set, which features a post-“Star Trek” Leonard Nimoy – replacing Martin Landau – joining Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) and his band of Impossible Mission Force operatives, with Greg Morris and Peter Lupus also returning as series regulars. While the theatrical successor relied heavily on Cruise and high-octane action, the original series remained a continual team-effort, both heady and methodical. Highlighting the season is the three-part episode “The Falcon” (episodes 14-16), which was the only three-part story arc in the series’ entire eight year run and the last multi-episode the show ever did. That episode also marks the fourth – and final – appearance by Lee Meriwether, best known from her work on “Barnaby Jones” and as Catwoman in the 1966 film version of “Batman.” There are no special features other than audio and subtitle options (which don’t even count anymore), but with 26 episodes featuring the IMF team using their new technologies and old-school disguises, Season 4 is certainly worth the investment.

Click to buy “Mission:Impossible: The Complete Fourth Season”

Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone / The World’s Strongest

With both TV specials now available on DVD, the next logical step for Funimation in their ongoing plan to remaster everything “Dragon Ball Z” was to begin releasing the series’ other 13 films in conjunction with the remaining season sets. This two-disc double feature collects the first two, “Dead Zone” and “The World’s Strongest,” and though neither one is considered required viewing for the casual fan, they’re still part of the official canon. “Dead Zone” takes place just before the first episode of “DBZ” – when Goku and Piccolo were still mortal enemies and Gohan was as annoying as ever – and finds the evil Garlic Jr. fulfilling his wish for immortality. “The World’s Strongest,” meanwhile, takes place just after the Saiyan Saga and follows the famous Dr. Wheelo (now in brain form after his body decomposed in an icy prison) as he attempts to harvest the world’s strongest warrior for his new body. Both movies have two things in common: they use Gohan’s hidden potential as the catalyst for eventual victory (like Bruce Banner, you don’t want to make Gohan angry), and they exhibit several similarities to future story arcs (Dr. Wheelo is essentially a poor man’s Dr. Gero, right down to the robot warrior lackeys). Neither one is especially memorable, but diehard fans wanting to update their collection will be rewarded with the best-looking versions of these movies yet.

Click to buy “Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone / The World’s Strongest”

Jackass Presents Mat Hoffman’s Tribute to Evel Knievel

The “Jackass” well, she is a-drying. This hastily assembled tribute to the world’s biggest daredevil – he died in November, this first ran on MTV in late February – contains some impressive stunts, but with Johnny Knoxville serving as the sole “Jackass” regular to appear, the between-stunt banter is pretty flat. Even the stunt involving a guy jumping out of a plane without a parachute was rather dull. BMX champ Mat Hoffman is an amiable enough host, but he sounds like he’s taken a few too many hits to the head. The show picks up a bit towards the end, when a series of bikers attempt all sorts of sure-to-fail stunts (one of which sends Johnny to the hospital), but this rental-only material across the board. If that.

Click to buy “Mat Hoffman’s Tribute to Evel Knievel”

Drew Hastings: Irked and Miffed

Like a less feminine, metrosexual Charles Nelson Reilly with a shag cut, Drew Hastings is an odd bird, and his concert video, “Irked and Miffed,” is impressive in how it makes his oddness so normal. More of a storyteller than a joke teller, Hastings spins lengthy, humorous yarns about Missouri animal parks, his experiences as a farmer, and his three-day one night stand with a gasper (she was into erotic asphyxiation). The farm bit was the most enlightening, because he masterfully blends his big-city sensibilities (eye masks, silk kimonos) with finite details of life in rural Ohio (camouflage wallets, surly barn cats). Some of the jokes have been done before – Blake Clark told the camouflage wallet joke 20 years ago, and his bit on Viagra has been done by, well, everyone, but mainly Ron White – but Hastings’ delivery is unique and his playful banter with audience members is barbed without being mean-spirited. Most pleasant of all is his tendency to stay away from topical humor. A comedian that doesn’t bash the government; how refreshing.

Click to buy “Drew Hastings: Irked and Miffed”

Stargate: Infinity – The Complete Series

This short-lived animated spin-off from the “Stargate” franchise has received the kind of abuse from sci-fi fans generally reserved for Rick Berman’s work on “Star Trek,” but as they scream about abuse of continuity and how things have been dumbed down from the original source material, they’re forgetting something: it’s a freaking cartoon. Taking place 30 years after the original film, “Stargate: Infinity” focuses on Major Gus Bonner, a longtime member of the Stargate team who, as the series opens, is on trial as a result of a mission which led to the death of several members of his team. (Wow, the acknowledgement of death in a children’s cartoon? Nice!) In a quick set-up, however, we’re witness to Bonner being framed by an alien infiltrator disguised as a Stargate scientist, which leads to Bonner taking a trio of cadets – R.J, Seattle, and Samantha – and an alien technical expert named Teal’c through the Stargate. Although they aren’t readily able to return to Earth, they’re able to visit various other planets, so Bonner bounces the team to various places he’s already visited, helping to educate the young cadets until they can get home. The animation isn’t great, and the scripts inevitably have heavy-handed lessons shoehorned in, but the characters are interesting and, despite the complaints from the “Stargate” obsessives, “Infinity” is actually pretty enjoyable as kids’ sci-fi cartoons go. A word of warning: the series ended with no resolution to the team’s space-lost situation. Hey, maybe they’ll pop up on “Stargate: Atlantis”! (Yeah, let’s place bets on that, shall we?)

Click to buy “Stargate: Infinity – The Complete Series”

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