Ronald Quincy Dobbs

This was an absolutely hilarious and classic show and i echo the sentiments of just about every review here since i don't see anything negative about it. The premise was so great and they could've done so much more with it (they barely scratched the surface with themes).

Some of my favorite episodes include "Who Wants Cake" where the teachers and principal use a trip to "Good Time Island" as blackmail to get her to admit that her lockermate is "retarded"

"The Trip Back" where Jerri gets back in with a crowd of stoners which is killing her (amazing for her) D- average that she needs to pass freshman year

Other great episodes include the episode with the n-word on the wall (Tim Meadows with a hilarious guest role) and the episode where Jerri reclaims her virginity.

This show never ran out of steam and ended with a bang, the last episode was a classic and finished the show out properly, although i'd love to see it come back, the humor and running gags were excellent and the show was just so original and ahead of it's time (well, time will tell on that one, but trust me, there will be imitators in the years ahead)

Luckily most of the episodes are readily available on Kazaa but i'd still love a DVD set with the entire series (I think there's only about 30 episodes, how hard would that be Comedy Central?)

Good news villagers, rejoice, for The Larry Sanders Show is now syndicated on our local NBC here in Detroit and on Bravo from 10-11 with the replay at 12-1 every night, huzzah. Wait, what is the Larry Sanders show you ask? Well, I shall tell you.

The Larry Sanders Show is a show about the production of the most generic late night talk show possible, if you're wondering why a lot of people are saying the show is brilliant but the "show within a show" portions suck, that's what they're intended to do. The show exposes how pre-fab and bad talk shows really are, and makes us feel bad for ever tuning into one. It's a form of satire that made me appreciate That's My Bush and it's knocks on sitcoms.

The characters are what make this special, even though a lot of the supporting players changed over the years. Larry is neurotic and unstable and is, as one episode put it, "out of the loop", he always seems to get everything last. Hank is Larry's TV sidekick who greatly overestimates his own worth and constantly makes a fool out of himself, it's hard to decide whether to feel sorry for him or to laugh at what a fool he is, Tambor plays his role absolutely perfectly and it's always funny to hear one of the celebrities screw up his name or to hear his laments about his position on the show. Artie, the producer, is a two faced jerk who you can't help but love, he spews profanities and insults out of one side of his mouth and sucks up incessantly out of the other.

Real celebrities appear on this show and the "show within a show" portions are shot on film, as to provide for more realism. Oh, and if you ever wondered what the celebrities and the host talk about when they cut away for commercial break but still appear to be babbling away, this show lets you in on a bit of that with some rather hilarious conversation.

The show is not only excellent satire, it's well acted and incredibly funny. My favorite episode is Hank's Contract which is the funniest episode centered on Hank and what respect the rest of the cast and crew hold him in.

The profanities are edited out of the Bravo version with audio deletion in lieu of bleeps, which i was very very very disappointed about. I don't live and die around cuss words, but it totally destroys a character like Artie's diction, this show, however, would still be better than 99.9% of what's currently on TV if it had half it's dialogue deleted.

Deep into the WWF's "US vs. Canada/Hart Foundation" storyline, the WWF decided to have their July In Your House in the Hart family's hometown of Calgary, Alberta Canada. The environment is absolutely UNREAL as the fans go nuts for everything the Canadians do (Brian Pillman gets cheered for cheating for example) and boo the US team out of the building with their every move (Steve Austin takes on a heel persona and plays against the crowd getting some of the loudest heat ever, Ken Shamrock tries to play to the crowd and gets booed right out of the building)

Just a break down of the matches here.

Mankind vs. HHH Probably the best of their original feud, if you loved the Street Fight or the HIAC or the MSG Raw match this is an essential, this is from their original feud and was an absolutely wild brawl leading to a double countout and they fought throughout the rest of the show, the feud culminated the next month at Summerslam ****

Taka vs. The Great Sasuke

Although they've had many matches on Michinoku Pro TV this is the first time North American WWF fans had been treated to these two (although they made a very very impressive NA PPV debut at ECW's barely legal 4 months prior), a great outing which changed Taka's entire career path because of how the crowd rallied behind him, originally Sasuke was to be pushed and Taka was supposed to be fodder for the light heavyweight division. This match was excellent although a bit short, and is one of the best cruiserweight matches i've ever seen, even close to Eddy vs. Rey. ****1/4

Vader vs. The Undertaker

This was originall supposed to be Ahmed vs. Taker, but big surprise, Ahmed Johnson got injured before the match! Thank god his heel push got cut off at the legs. Anyway, this is a really good big man match that really makes you realize how washed up Taker is after he was this great in 97. The selling and bumping are really sound for these two, especially considering how injuries were getting to Vader at this point. ***3/4

10 Man Tag

Steve Austin/Ken Shamrock/Goldust/Road Warriors vs. Bret Hart/Owen Hart/Jim Neidhart/British Bulldog/Brian Pillman

Wild, 30 minutes of non stop action with the best crowd heat ever for any match (although it was nearly duplicated on Raw in 2000 during the Radicals debut). Wild stuff as Owen Hart and Steve Austin both were "injured" during the match, leading to their exits and eventual return for the finish, Austin gets in a brawl with the Hart family at ringside and gets taken to jail, but is able to get the middle fingers up past the handcuffs. Why couldn't he play THIS character in 2001? Awesome stuff, and i wish that Bret Hart could've gone out on this note.

*****

If you don't own this tape...what is wrong with you?!!?!? Get a VHS copy of the coliseum video version "WWF Maximum Impact (97)" which should say contains matches with the July in your house and has Bret Hart on the cover. Probably the best show the WWF has EVER done in competition with only Wrestlemania X-7 and a few others. WWE is nuts not to release this on DVD, i'd upgrade my copy in a second.

As a South Park fan it's really hard to give an objective rating to the movie, the show definitely shows high and low points with the high points being the first season and the current one and the low point being the 4th season, this movie comes from the end of the show's first high point and is probably funnier than any south park episode.

The plot is as zany and off the wall with many subplots, much like an episode of south park, The boys go see the Terrence and Phillip movie which is laden with foul words, the movie becomes a craze with american youth and spreads like wildfire through south park elementary (one really funny scene includes a girl wearing a shirt in the cafeteria with a word that i can't say here). The boys get in trouble at school for using the foul language towards Mr. Garrison and the school starts a counseling program, the kids see the movie again and undo everything they learned, this leads the parents to starting a war with Canada over their entertainment and there's so many subplots that i don't even want to begin to get into it.

The movie is a musical and anybody who thinks there was no effort put into the songs (yes, even uncle f---a) really needs to take a second listen, especially to "Blame Canada" which was very clever and earned an Oscar nomination.

Trey Parker uses the popular South Park license to get across a very important message about censorship and the American government overstepping its bounds which is very true today, it gives answers instead of bringing up new questions (Who's responsible for the kids behavior? The parents.), and is an essential viewing seeing as how prophetic it was. The war with Canada in the film is very very similar to our current situations after 9/11 with Iraq and Afghanistan, civil liberties are going to the wayside and our government does whatever they please and chalks it up to the war on terror. And is there really any difference between that and a war on foul language? It's just an excuse with a different name.

This movie would work fine if the South Park TV show never existed, the characters are defined well for new viewers and the musical approach makes it fresh and new, the original NC17 rating and studio censorship really angered Trey and Matt so they're probably not going to make another South Park movie, as much as i'd love to see it. This one is timeless and even more important today than it was then.

10/10

Back in 1997 Austin Powers created quite a buzz as a really funny James Bond parody that was a sleeper hit, I saw it and thought it was incredibly original and generally laughed my ass off for the entire duration. The characters were incredibly entertaining and fun and the movie didn't feel forced.

However, this movie is the definition of forced. In the very opening you get Tom Cruise and Gwyneth Paltrow doing a very very unfunny Austin Powers movie parody (Note to writers: Self parody does not work in a parody!), and the movie proceeds to Austin powers opening by dancing for no reason (you can't really level the same claim at the first one because the scene was appropriately goofy and relevant for what it was) and for whatever reason Austin walks in on Britney Spears's set and blows her head up. Huh? Oh yeah, and there's a LOT of product placement in this movie, a LOT, to the point where it's annoying the viewer.

Some of the bits that would've been funny for instance some toilet humor involving a fountain and a shadow puppets scene behind a curtain would've been very funny if they didn't go on for like 10 minutes and seems to drag.

I won't even bother ragging on Beyonce Knowle's acting because her lines were incredibly stupid to begin with and she didn't have a very significant role, either she is really that bad or she's just there to cash a check.

Overall the main problem I have with this movie is that all the characters were basically destroyed by it and the series has self destructed while they already intend to make new ones. Goldmember picks at his skin, can bend into gross positions, and has well, a gold member. Why am i supposed to care about this character? Do they intend to make him a recurring villain, because he's awful. Dr. Evil and Scott pull a role reversal, Fat Bastard is stretched (pun intended) beyond the bounds of all stupidity in this one, and he was a really awful character to begin with.

Stay away from this tripe, I can't even lay blame squarely on the writers because even Michael Caine and Mike Myers sounded wooden and were just rattling off catchphrases. Don't even bother spending money on a rental.

This is that one really popular indie film that comes out every once in a while, that has a plot that's familiar enough for the masses to attach themselves to, go see, and pretend to be film intellectuals. It's not entertainment, it's a composite of ideas from a lot of other thrillers with a boring, no name, lifeless cast.

Go see what you like, that's what the entertainment medium of film is all about. Keeping you interested. This can't possibly be interesting to anybody with the way attention spans are today.

I kept drudging through the repetitive nonsense figuring there would be a point, after an hour i turned it off for a while because it seemed like there wasn't, i wish I didn't finish it.

To quote Hans Moleman "You've wasted 5 minutes of my life, and I want them back...oh who am I kidding, I'd probably waste them anyway"

Don't waste 2 hours of your life, steer clear and rent "Rear Window"