A wealth of product hits the streets this week in anticipation of the holidays, out of which you can sift one of the best comedies of the year and a better-than-average season of a hit show.
The Simpsons: The Complete Seventh Season
Although Season Six saw the beginning of the decline of the best animated show on television, Season Seven actually showed improvement. With now classic episodes such as "Radioactive Man," "Bart Sells His Soul," "Lisa the Vegetarian," "Team Homer," and "A Fish Called Selma," this season proved that the creators were not quite ready to settle for mediocrity, though episodes like "Two Bad Neighbors" and "Summer of 4 ft. 2" intimated what was on the horizon. Arguably more worth owning than Season Six, if for no other reason than this one has Handsome Pete.
As usual, the extras are legion. Commentary on every episode, unlike most TV DVD collections. Plus, deleted scenes.
Bad News Bears
What happened to Richard Linklater? Or the writers behind Bad Santa, for that matter? Or how about Billy Bob Thornton? This had all the earmarks of a good project. Well, besides the fact that it was a remake, which is 90% of the time a bad sign in and of itself. (I say that very conscious of King Kong coming out tomorrow. And, yes, I've bought my tickets already.) But this was not as successful a remake as that one looks to be.
Extras include director's commentary, so Rick gets a chance to explain himself. And maybe tell us when the hell A Scanner Darkly is coming out.
Roll Bounce
Mixed reviews also greeted this nostalgic look at the days of roller disco from Undercover Brother helmer Malcom D. Lee. But hey, at least it gave Charlie Murphy something to do.
The Island
This probably didn't deserve to be quite the flop that it was. Now that it's being blamed for everything from a year's worth of bad box office (along with Stealth) to the sale of DreamWorks to Paramount, it seems strange that this is also Michael Bay's best-reviewed film to date. Of course, the concensus was "it's good, for Michael Bay," a back-handed complement at best. If you've got nothing else to do on a Saturday afternoon, I say give it a shot. Its biggest offense is probably a criminally underused Djimon Hounsou.
Article comments