- Directed by: Lewis Teague
- Written by John Sayles .
- Cast: Pamela Sue Martin ("Dynasty"), Robert Conrad ("The Wild Wild West", "Baa Baa Black Sheep"), Louise Fletcher ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest")
- Year: 1979
DVD Features:
Episodic Previews
Episodic Recaps
In the pilot, Allen stops by The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn to ! talk about her latest role: tequila spokesmodel. It may not be! acting, but she has a son to support and it's an improvement on her softcore Emmanuelle past. In the same episode, Greenberg has a walk-on on ER and Hall has a stand-in on The George Lopez Show. In subsequent episodes, Allen guests on Jake in Progress and Hall does stand-in and background work on Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Constantine. Greenberg hits the greatest heights when a recurring role on One Tree Hill leads to a starring role in Prime--opposite Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep. All go to humiliating auditions for parts they don't get.
As expected from a Clooney/Soderbergh production, stars abound, including Noah Wylie, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Hank Azaria, Keanu Reeves, and Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which featured Allen and Hall). Like improvised predecessor Curb Your Enthusiasm, most play themselves. Despite greater critical acclaim, Unscripted, like K Street before it, ! was not renewed for a second season. It deserved better. --Kathleen C. FennessyAt a rural bar, a motley bunch of patrons struggle to survive a ravenous family of flying beasts bent on devouring every last one of them.In need of some good old-fashioned gore? You'll find it by the bucketload in the low-budget monsterfest Feast, which arrives on DVD in an even bloodier unrated edition. The winning entry in the third season of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's reality series/talent contest Project Greenlight (Wes Craven is also on board as an advisor/producer), Feast is a wall-to-wall splatterthon that operates on an agreeably simple premise: A crew of motley characters is trapped in a remote location (in this case, a desert bar) by ravenous, flesh-eating monsters (here, a quartet of toothy and astoundingly fecund humanoids). The result? Lots of gruesome deaths and plenty of manic action, delivered with kinetic style by first-time feature director John Gu! lager. Not everything about Feast works--Gulager's driv! e is thw arted by the unfocused script, which favors smarmy dialogue over substance--but the effects are impressive, given the film's price tag, and the cast is incredibly game for the gory goings-on, with Krista Allen (Entourage), Judah Friedlander (30 Rock), Balthazar Getty (Alias), and Gulager's father, veteran actor Clu Gulager, among the stand-outs. The DVD includes a smattering of outtakes and deleted scenes (including an alternate ending); commentary by Gulager, the screenwriters, and two of the film's numerous producers; and a making-of featurette, which Project Greenlight viewers should find interesting solely for producers Chris Moore and Michael Leahy's attitudes towards Gulager (both were a hair's breath away from firing him throughout the production, but here, amusingly suggest unconditional support). -- Paul Gaita
Dancing Queen. Respect. Brandy (Youâre a Fine Girl). There are some songs so infectious that you canât help but belt out the lyrics along with the singer. Karaokeâ"meaning âempty orchestraâ in Japaneseâ"gets rid of the singer and leaves you in the spotlight alone. It is the social manifestation of our desire to sing, in tune or out, and in three short decades, it has exploded into a worldwide craze. In this unprecedented s! tudy, Zhou Xun and Francesca Tarocco engagingly examine karaoke and all its associated kitsch, crime, and weirdness.
Usually thought of as the pastime of desperately bad singers and slurring drunks, karaoke has never enjoyed a particularly stellar image. Xun and Tarocco, however, reveal its surprisingly complex history and significant cultural impact around the world. Originating in postwar Japan, karaoke soon spread to Southeast Asia and the West. Karaoke traces how it became a wildly successful social phenomenon that constantly evolved to keep pace with changes in technology and culture. Drawing on extensive research and international travels, the authors chart the varied manifestations of karaoke, from karaoke taxis in Bangkok to nude karaoke in Toronto to the role of karaoke in prostitution. Extensive personal anecdotes reveal the dramatic range of social experiences made possible by karaoke and how the obsession with performance and song has touched pol! itics, history, and pop culture throughout global society.
Kar aoke bars are at the heart of rich escapist fantasies and the authorsâ"in readable fashion and using vibrant full-color illustrationsâ"document this unpredictable fantasy world and the people who inhabit it. Karaoke,therefore, will delight anyone who has had the courage to take the mike and front the âempty orchestra.â
Eckhart plays Dr. Burke Ryan, a motivational guru whose bestselling books and seminars purportedly are to help the masses deal with their feelings of grief and loss--but he also finds he uses his massive success as an excellent device to distance himse! lf from his own feelings. Aniston is a successful florist, who! , after a string of really bad relationships (her pal says, "you tend to fall for guys with expiration dates right on their foreheads"), has sworn off men. The two meet cute when they literally bump into each other in the Seattle hotel where Eckhart is holding a seminar. It's to both actors' great credit that what seems like an instant connection is really quite believable, though of course the characters' first instinct is to each run the other way. Eckhart and Aniston have believable, adult chemistry, something often missing from contemporary American film. Their emotional baggage has shaped them, and must be opened, organized, and then properly stowed for takeoff; Love Happens gives careful attention to that all-too-necessary process.
Martin Sheen has an excellent supporting role as the father of Burke's late wife--and who clearly sees the pain his son-in-law is steeping in, despite success beyond his wildest dreams. Director and co-writer Brandon Camp (John Doe) has a sure knack for dialogue and for connecting characters. He also is adept at letting a setting--in this case, Seattle--develop as a moody and appropriate backdrop for his story. (Though purists and Seattleites will have fun watching for the many breaks in continuity, between shots of the city and of Vancouver, where much of the film was shot.) "You have to give yourself permission to live your life again," Burke's friend (Dan Fogler) urges him. Words to live--and love--by. --A.T. Hurley
DERAILED - DVD MovieWith a nasty villain and a plot twist that will take many viewers by surprise, Derailed is the kind of potboiler that's enjoyable in spite of its flaws. It's basically two-thirds of a good movie, with a convincing set-up and a barely plausible payoff that... well, you've just got to see it and decide for yourself. Like Fatal Attraction, it's a good-enough thriller that turns infidelity into every man's nightmare, beginning w! hen Charles (Clive Owen), a well-to-do Chicago advertising dir! ector wi th a sickly, diabetic daughter and a slightly troubled marriage, has a chance encounter with Lucinda (Jennifer Aniston), a lovely and quick-witted financial advisor who's also stuck in a marital rut. Their chemistry is instant (between both characters and stars), but their eventual hotel tryst is interrupted by a mugger (French actor Vincent Cassel at his vile, despicable best) who's out to milk Charles for every dollar he's got. Of course, one phone call to the police would solve everyone's problems, but as he did with Collateral (albeit more convincingly), screenwriter Stuart Beattie turns up the tension with such manipulative skill that you're willing to skate past the plot holes and go along for the ride. With lively supporting performances by rappers Xzibit and RZA, Derailed marks a commercially slick American debut for Swedish director Mikael Håfström, whose 2003 thriller Evil was a Best Foreign Film Oscar®-nominee. --Jeff Shannon
