Reviews

It's easy to compare this film to probably my favorite Zombie film of all time, Dawn of the Dead, though it's nowhere near the quality of Romero's masterpiece. Especially because much of the film's soundtrack is part and parcel some of the main music associated with DOTD. The budget couldn't afford Goblin to write the soundtrack, so they simply got the rights to use the songs from Romero's film instead.

There are comparable elements. We get Francine/Flyboy stand-ins Margie Newton and. Gaby Renom as Lia and Pierre. They end up teaming with four SWAT guys instead of two. The stoic Peter's qualities are mainly transferred to SWAT leader Mike London (Jose Gras), while Osborne (Josep Lluis Fonoll) fills in for Roger's general appearance (A short blonde guy) and disappearance at the beginning of the third act. However, Zantoro (Franco Garofalo) gets other elements of Roger, namely his eventual breakdown. However...His performance is basically Roger's breakdown if it went on for an hour or more of the movie, rather than five minutes. He's dialed up to 11 for the majority of the film.

The film makes up for it's wildly all over the place plot with heavy and fairly realistic gore effects, and it's filled with the usual choppy editing and day-for-night filming that is the usual for films of this type.

The actors all do a credible job, and while some go over the top, namely Garofalo, it works somewhat based on the nightmarish situation they find themselves in.

The basic plot is a gas created to cull the Earth's overpopulation gets loose, obliterating the scientists who created it at the beginning of the film, and our DOTD stand-in characters are left to fight through the aftermath.

Naturally, the characters do some dumb things. Namely, they insist on shooting the zombies everywhere but their heads. Props to Zantoro, while he's quite deranged and seemingly overcaffinated, he figures out the weakness of the head, and yet still has to constantly tell his compatriots over and over to aim for the head.

Don't go into it expecting much. If you do, you'll be entertained. They never end up anywhere near a mall, but if you love DOTD like I do, there are enough carry over elements to make it somewhat enjoyable.

(Minor spoilers)

While nowhere near the quality of the original masterpiece of "Jaws," or even it's immediate sequel, "Jaws 2," I still enjoy this film, and like it a it more than "Jaws 3-D." While technically better, "Jaws 3-D" feels like a Jaws film in name only. You could change the name of Quaid's character and still have the same film. This couldn't be more clear in the scripting of this film, which basically pretends "Jaws 3-D" never happened.

Yes, the plot is frequently ridiculous, and save for the really appalling slow moving shark in the finale of Jaws 3-D, this film probably has the weakest of the fake sharks on screen. Apparently the original script had a voodoo subplot which, while also ridiculous, would have "smoothed the waters," as to how the shark not only gets from Amity to the Bahamas in mere days, but also offers an explanation as to why it somehow seems to be "targeting" the Brody family personally.

One of the things that help make it watchable are the cast. Lorraine Gary gets a rare opportunity to topline a film, and she does well, returning to the role she's most famous for. While Dennis Quaid is a better actor than Lance Guest, I found myself liking Guest more as Mike Brody. For one thing, he looks more like he could be the child of Gary and Roy Scheider, and I could see Mike pursuing a career in the ocean after the events of the earlier "Jaws" film. His profession seemed more plausible here than working at Sea World. Again not knocking Quaid, he's an immensely talented actor and gave a good performance in the third film, I just give the edge to Guest, he performs well here and seems to more look the part of someone who could be the Brody's son.

Mario Van Peeble's accent is questionable, but Jake is probably my favorite character in the film, and of course, the film also boasts Academy-Award winner Michael Caine. Yes, he's here for the money and the location shooting, but he doesn't phone in his performance at all, and Caine is watchable in anything. He's clearly having fun here, and it shows.

Karen Young and Lynn Whitfield are also nicely cast in the smaller supporting roles of Guest and Peeble's significant others, and it also features one of the tragic last performances of Judith Barsi, who does an excellent job as Brody's young daughter.

While lacking somewhat in the shark attack sequences, the film does open with an effectively chilling attack, one that results in the death of Sean Brody. I'm not too worried about sharing that detail, as it happens in the film's opening, and basically is the set-up for the rest of the film. While the film's quality lessens after the opening sequence, that first attack still remains highly effective and uncomfortable to watch. It also allows the film to come a bit full-circle afterwards, with Ellen being consoled by none other than original "Jaws" actresses Lee Fiero, Mrs. Kintner, who lost her own on-screen son in the original film, and Fritzi Jane Courtney as Mrs. Taft "(I don't think that's funny. I don't think that's funny at all.")

Personally, I enjoy it. It's not a great film, but it's not as awful as it's reputation would have you believe, in my opinion. I own it as part of a three-movie set with the second and third films, and I've definitely given "Revenge" more repeat viewings than the third film.

Against the series as a whole, Son of the Pink Panther would rank in the low to middle of the pack, and if viewed as an opportunity to merely revive the series after the death of Peter Sellers, it would rank even lower than that.

However, to me, the film is equal parts introduction of Clouseau's son, and how Dreyfus copes with the knowledge of his existence.

To be fair to Roberto Benigni, he had huge shoes to fill, and honestly, I thought he did a fairly respectable job. He had some of Seller's mannerisms without being a caricature, and he was actually very funny. The post involves a kidnapping of a princess played by Debra Farentino by the always excellent Robert Davi, and Dreyfus teaming up with Clouseau's illegitimate son, Jacques Gambrelli, to rescue her.

To me, SOTPP reads almost as a thank you letter to frequent co-star Herbert Lom. So many times in the past films, it ended with him hopelessly deranged and confined to an insane asylum. Here, he not only gets to figure out the case, but he gets the girl in the process. The girl here is Maria Gambrelli, played by the excellent Claudia Cardinale, returning to the franchise in the role originally played by Elke Sommer in A Shot in the Dark.

After multiple films featuring Dreyfus attempting to kill Clouseau, and demonstrating how much he hated the man, what a fitting and ironic ending that he ends up marrying into the family and becoming the step father of Clouseau's illegitimate son. The film really allows Lom to come full-circle with Dreyfus, certainly the character we saw in A Shot in the Dark and The Pink Panther Strikes Again never would have been able to do so. Also, after brow beating Clouseau for repeatedly releasing Maria in A Shot in the Dark (And more death ensuing whenever he did so) It was added irony that he would marry the woman that he spent much of that earlier film trying to keep locked away in prison. One of the other reviewers felt the role was underwritten, but I don't get that at all. He does much of his work from the sidelines, but he has plenty of screen time, and he has a lot of nice moments both with Benigni and Cardinale. It's also nice to see Graham Stark, and Burt Kwouk make returns to the series.

I give the film a higher ranking than most because I really liked what they did with the Dreyfus character. He gets a bit twitchy, he gets a bit nutty, because that's who he is, but unlike the other films, he manages to keep it together, and after so many films of getting shafted, he finally gets a happy ending. It's a fantastic closure. His nuttiness mainly occurs in the early part of the film as he's slowly realizing who Gambrelli really is. He takes it well, and keeps it together.

As funny as I thought Sellers was, Lom's Dreyfus has always been my favorite character of the franchise. It takes a hell of a talent to go toe-to-toe with Sellers, and Lom did it frequently, and sometimes even stole the show. He wasn't trying to, it was just that his character was so funny and he was so perfect at playing it that sometimes he was able to do so. The Pink Panther films would not have been the success they were without Sellers, but I confidently say they wouldn't have been as successful if Lom wasn't in them either. He was always a bit of a Harvey Korman to Sellers' Tim Conway. This film will always hold a high place in my favor for rewarding Dreyfus in the most fitting and ironic way possible.

First off. If you decide to start watching the show because you solely want to watch poker, you'll be in for disappointment. But if you like a darker serial with poker elements, like I do, this is worth a watch, and I speak as a person who has logged countless hours of televised poker.

The Ace in the Hole turns out to be the nominal star, Michael Madsen as Don "The Matador" Everest. I say nominal because, while he's definitely a leading character as the show's primary antagonist, the focus is a bit more on upstart Eddie Towne, played by Eddie Cibrian. Still, I'm a massive fan of Madsen since "Reservoir Dogs," and he gets plenty of screen time. The scenes between Madsen and Cibrian, whether together or apart, pop. I'd not seen Cibrian in anything prior to this, but He was a more than capable protagonist.

Other standouts include Chris Bauer as Lee Nickel, a cop out of his jurisdiction determined to bring Everest down over the death of his brother, working with local authorities, federal agencies, even Matador's associates in a desperate attempt to bring him down. He's more familiar for playing another cop, Andy Bellefleur on "True Blood," though here he gets to play a lawman with no comedic slant.

The remainder of the main cast has less showy roles, but as an amateur critic, I found no fault in their performances. The female lead portrayed by Kristin Lehman is only known as Miami, and brings a nice intensity to her role, and surprisingly, while partners with Towne, the series declines to follow the old trope and make the partnership romantic between them. The last playing member of the team is Todd Williams as Clark Marcellin. The three have an excellent chemistry together.

Also of note are casino mogul Michael Murphyas Jimmy Molloy, and Don McManus as casino manager Bart "Lowbal" Rogers. Who are in league with Everest. As the series begins, Everest essentially works for the casino, bringing in suckers who want to take on the famous pro.

Towne, Miami, and Marcellin eventually gross paths with Seymour Annisman (Kenneth Welsh) who brings them together as a team to try and take Everest down. However, things come to a head at the halfway point in the series, and the plans have to be rewritten. The series culminates at the WSOP stand-in "The World Championship of Poker," and features supporting appearances from famous WSOP commentators Lon McEachern and Norman Chad. Phil Hellmuth has an extended cameo during the tournament scenes, having a verbal sparring match with Madsen's Everest. Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, David Williams,and T.J. Cloutier also make cameos. The late great Robert Forster also makes an appearance as Towne's estranged father.

The one thing that I appreciated is that the poker only mildly stretched credibility. In films like "Maverick," the hero beats the villain with a Royal Flush. "Casino Royale" was a great film, but the poker scenes were a stretch, especially a four way all in featuring an ace high flush, a full house, a higher full house, and a straight flush.

Here, a key hand involves A/K/ vs pocket sixes, and the flop ends up as A/K/6. Yes, it's convenient that the hands fall the way they do, but it's a situation I've seen many times playing online poker, and even sometimes in live poker. There wasn't a need by the writers to jam in a bunch of huge hands to make the audience go "WOW!" they're realistic and straightforward.

While it's a glimpse into Elisa Lam's life, it spends way too much time on the "internet sleuths," who end up being wrong on every theory. First it's a hotel cover-up, then it's Morbid, some guy who was present at the hotel a month before Lam was there, and wasn't even in the country when she died.

Another issue is the hidden reveal. The "sleuths" spend a ton of time focusing on the hatch to get in and the fact that she couldn't close it behind her, based on one law enforcement official's statement that he believed it was closed. In the last episode, we find that the maintenance man who made the discovery found it open, which they could have revealed in episode three or earlier, but gotta keep people watching.

In the end, Morbid got no apology, and the "sleuths," had egg on their faces, but it certainly wasn't that focused on Lam, and seemed more interested with the wild theories involving her death, and a writing mistake on the autopsy report.

RIP Ms. Lam.

(Rating based solely on the first five minutes only)

I was retroactively watching some of Shawnee Smith's films and saw this in her filmography, so I found it online. To my surprise, Shawnee pops up right at the beginning of the film as the meth-addicted wife of Tom Arnold's character. She has some memorable moments as she paints her toenails well outside the lines due to being strung out, and then a bit of mania as her meth highball hits her system.

Then, she died during a confrontation between Arnold's meth dealer hubby and some representatives of the cartel competition, so I didn't need to see the rest. She played the part of an addict deep into a meth addiction quite well, they even gave her some dental prosthetics to make her teeth look rotted. It's like an alternate universe of "Saw," where Amanda met Tom Arnold's character rather than experienced Jigsaw's cold-turkey method with the reverse bear trap.

The rest of the film might be enjoyable, it's your call. If you're a fan of Shawnee Smith, save it for a rental, she'd killed off less than 5 minutes in.

I'm giving Shawnee's performance eight stars. Wonder how they got her into it? Maybe she was friends with someone in the production? Seems the film is rife with cameos, so maybe they particularly sought her out to add to the cameo list.

I should give a shout out to Arnold, who provides some humor after accidentally shooting his wife "Sorry hon!" And then, after a fire breaks out in his meth lab, he quickly pulls out a fire extinguisher to douse the flames....And it's so old that it gives one sad puff and dies.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not committing sacrilege, the first "SAW" is naturally the more memorable of the two, with that OMG twist. However, personal preference...I just prefer rewatching this one a bit more.

My favorite mystery novel is "And Then There Were None," so naturally most any horror film with a group of characters trapped in an isolated location being picked off one by one is right up my alley, and this film has that in spades.

The film introduces us to our ant-hero, Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) who is a questionable cop. He's intelligent, but seems to lack interest in the job, and lost his wife and custody of his son, in part due to an affair with Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer, who returns from "Saw.") He and his son, Daniel (Erik Knudsen) share an antagonistic relationship. He's called out at a crime scene by the Jigsaw killer, and elects to ignore the message and declines to get involved. However, he pieces together a clue, which leads them directly to Jigsaw (Tobin Bell, also returning from "Saw.")

While he manages to injure/kill a few of the storming police and SWAT team members who swarm his hideout, he fails to stop them all. Seems like everything is over. They've got their man, and Matthews snidely celebrates his victory.

However, this is the "Saw" universe. Jigsaw has a contingency plan, in the form of a game, in an unknown location, with eight trapped prisoners, being streamed by visual only cameras to monitor screens in Jigsaw's warehouse. To Matthews' horror, he sees that one of the eight participants is his son, who was kidnapped by Jigsaw after the two got into a heated argument. The group is being slowly poisoned by nerve gas, and will die unless they are rescued, or find the antidote. Jigsaw's demands are simple. He tells Matthews to talk to him, and he will see his son again.

SWAY leader Rigg (Lyriq Bent, who continues on in the "Saw" universe following this film) is the devil on Matthews' shoulder, advising him to use force. Kerry is the angel, telling him to play along, and buy them time while they trace the location of the game. Kerry wins out, and the two begin a cat-and-mouse game.

The film shifts between the battle between Jigsaw and Matthews to the eight participants of the house. In addition to Matthews' son, the group seemingly has an ace-in-the hole, as Amanda Young has once again been brought in for another "test." After all, who better to aid the group than someone who Jigsaw tested and who survived? She knows Jigsaw's games, and how to play. Seems after her escape from the trap in "Saw," she wasn't being very good to herself, prompting Jigsaw to test her again.

The other participants are Jonas (Glenn Plummer) Who does his best to listen to Amanda, and concentrates on keeping the peace, and looking beyond survival to WHY they were brought there. He's facing a brick wall in Xavier (Franky G), who doesn't care, and ruthlessly is only thinking of his own survival, and will step on anyone to make it happen. Addison (Emmanuel Vaugier), Laura (Beverly Mitchell) Obi (Timothy Burd) and Gus (Tony Nappo) round out the games players.

The acting is top notch. Bell thrives in the role, offering great insight into the brilliant man we only got a glimpse of on "Saw." Shawnee Smith is right there with him. Amanda is damaged, but she's a fighter. She's not the weak drug addict that we saw in the first film. She has a toughness and intelligence about her, and uses it to help guide the other players. Wahlberg has one of the toughest roles. He's not a nice guy, in fact, he's fairly corrupt. But the movie establishes his intelligence, and we forgive some of his faults because in the end, he's a desperate father trying to save his son. The fact that the last conversation they had ended in an argument only fuels his need to save his soon even deeper.

Of the rest of the cast, everyone nails their parts well, with Vaugier, Meyer, Franky G, and Plummer being the standouts of the supporting roles.

A strong follow up, and definitely worth a look

*SPOILERS* Do not read past here if you haven't seen it.

The twist isn't quite as epic as the first film, but it's close, and damn do I love the fact that it turns out Amanda has taken to Jigsaw as the mentor and father figure she never had, and is being trained to take over as his apprentice. There are clues sprinkled throughout the film that you totally miss in the first viewing, like Amanda never coughing or showing deep sickness like the others show. It's due in part to the clever twist of having her thrown into one of the more brutal traps, a pit of used needles. Smith is totally convincing, relaying the shock, the pain, and finally the adrenaline pushing her through the pain as she screams and throws waves of painful needles around. Who doesn't feel completely sorry for her after as she lays crying on the floor while Daniel pulls needles out of of her body? I've always been a fan of Shawnee Smith, and it wasn't just the fact that I'm a fan that made me like it, it was how overwhelmingly it made sense that she did. Her last line in the first film is "He....Helped me." It makes complete sense that she would devote herself to him, and to me, based on the course of this film, she would have been the perfect apprentice. Shame "Saw III" undid all that.

Bell and Smith, especially prior to "Saw III," worked before filming becoming their characters, going on walks, eating together, living as they thought Jigsaw and Amanda would live, and building the relationship from scratch. It's heartfelt and believable, in a twisted way, in both films, and it's totally thanks to the work of both that it translates to the screen.

The other main twist is also perfect. The people in the house were a complete decoy, and it's actually Matthews who was being tested the whole time. The final scene between Amanda and Matthews is letter perfect. I remember being totally agog, and totally pumped for Bell and Smith's future return to the franchise.

Having enjoyed the live-action series, I had solid hopes for the animated series, and it did not disappoint.

While they are able to do a lot more in the visual gags department than they ever would in the live-action version (In one episode, Corey drinks a variety of paint and then proceeds to sweat it out in rainbow coloring. It's ridiculous, but it's only a small part of the episode, and doesn't distract) the show is still grounded heavily in reality. Julian, Ricky, and Bubbles are the same characters they were in the series, they're just animated. Also, Randy has become an even more integral part of the show, and he plays off the leads excellently.

This is, IMO, a nice way to keep the franchise going, while essentially making the characters ageless. They can go 20 seasons in an animated series and still look the same as they did in season one. The plotlines, for the most part, are similar to what you'd see in the live-action version, with only a few taken to the animated extreme. Also, it's been fun to see the characters as children, which would have been impossible to do on the original series, without younger actors imitating.

The elephant in the room, of course, is the passing of long-time series regular John Dunsworth, who we sadly lost right before the animated series became a reality. Thanks to animation, (And I naturally assume with the full support of the Dunsworth family) Jim Lahey is still at the trailer park, through the use repurposed archival audio from Dunsworth's many years portraying the role. Lahey's spirit resides in, of course, a liquor bottle, and, as far as memory recollects, only interacts with Randy

The first couple of episodes were a little shaky, As would be expected. I'm sure his loss hit the cast hard. But the later episodes, and all of season two, used the Lahey character very effectively, so well that it really does seem like he recorded the new lines fresh. Also, I feel that his appearances are very tasteful. He's not in every episode, but he's in enough to still feel like part of the show, and it's very much a tribute to Dunsworth, and not an attempt to cash-in on Dunsworth's likeness. Dunsworth was always an integral part of the show, and thanks to the animated series, he still is.

I've watched both seasons, and am looking forward to future seasons. It's a riot.

I've seen a lot of mysteries, but this is probably my favorite. The well-crafted script from Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins plays totally fair with the audience, and if you're paying attention, you truly can work out the solution before the final scene.

The plot centers on Clinton (James Coburn,) an extremely successful movie producer. A year before the events of the main portion of the film, Clinton had a row with his wife, Sheila, at her birthday party, and she left in a huff, becoming the victim of a hit-and-run fatality. Clinton decides on the anniversary of her death, to host a party on his yacht, the "Sheila" in the south of France for some of his "friends." They include: Christine (Dyan Cannon,) an abrasive agent, Philip (James Mason) a fading film director. Tom, a screenwriter who is stuck doing rewrites, and hs wealthy wife Lee (Richard Benjamin and Joan Hackett,) and finally, rising star Alice and her thuggish agent husband (Rachel Welch and Ian McShane.)

All are in need of the career boost that Clinton can provide, and Clinton hints they will get that boost, if they all take part in the "Sheila Greene Memorial Gossip Game," and will all play a major part in the film he wishes to produce detailing his former wife's life, "The Last of Sheila." But there's more to the game than meets the eye, along with a possible murder or two.

To go into more detail will ruin the film, so I'm being as careful as possible. As I said before, once the mystery was explained, I couldn't help but kick myself over all the clues that I missed that were in plain sight.

The cast is uniformly excellent. However, particular praise must go to Cannon, who is a delight as the abrasive agent, Coburn, who is at his snarky best as the successful producer playing mind games with his hanger-on friends, Benjamin as the writer in a slump, and Hackett, who was gone too soon as his kindly, supportive wife. My favorite role was the director, played by James Mason. At this stage of his career, Mason played many roles, and he was great in all of them, but there wasn't much substance to them. Here, Mason finally gets a role with meat, and worthy of his talents, and he totally delivers. It's one of my favorite performances of his. Welch and McShane are also great, in somewhat thankless roles.

You may go into the movie expecting what's going to happen. I know I did. Then an event midway through the film completely caught me off guard. It's a surprise twist, and it's brilliant, and sets up the film for a stunning conclusion.

If you love mystery films, or are just a fan of anyone in the cast, do yourself a favor and check this out. You won't be disappointed.