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Entries tagged with 'Paramount'
Posted May. 14, 2008,
Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection!
By Dennis Dermody
Just in time for the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull film they’re releasing a nifty box set with all the Indiana Jones films: The Adventure Collection (Paramount). All look great, and hold up remarkably well. And all come with new special features and recent interviews with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. It’s amazing how just the silhouette of Harrison Ford with the hat and whip and the first few chords of John William's score is so instantly identifiable and iconic.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), the first, is a rousing adventure where Indiana fights Nazis on a worldwide hunt for the Ark of the Covenant. There’s a great featurette on how they did the melting face sequence at the end. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) was the darkest and least popular (and my personal favorite). But Spielberg does admits it introduced him to his future wife Kate Capshaw who plays the bumbling nightclub singer who is dragged along with Indiana in uncovering a death cult deep in the mountains of India. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) introduced Indiana’s dad (Sean Connery) in a search for the holy grail that leads them from Venice to the Middle East. This disc has a nice feature about the “women” of the films reunited on stage to reminisce about making the movies. Watching them back to back was a great deal of fun.
Posted Nov. 21, 2007,
Robert Conrad's Underpants in The Wild Wild West!
By Dennis Dermody
I’m just wild about the third season of The Wild Wild West, recently out from Paramount. This great series from the late 60s was part western, part James Bond-spy-drama starring mega-hunk Robert Conrad as the 1870s American Secret Service agent James T. West, who alongside master-of-disguise sidekick Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin), fights mad scientists, crazed despots and assorted evil geniuses. Lots of gadgetry and full-on fighting action.
Posted Nov. 15, 2007,
Perry Mason Season Two!
By Dennis Dermody
Perry Mason Season Two (Part Two) is out from Paramount and when I hear that intro music I get an instant boner. The memorable theme was composed by Fred Steiner who did the Star Trek theme not to mention The Bullwinkle Show. I love these mysteries. Based on the character created by Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason (played wonderfully by Raymond Burr) was an unbeatable attorney with his trusted gorgeous secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale) and crafty private detective Paul Drake (William Hopper -- who usually greets Della with a "Hi beautiful!" when he enters the office). But the shows are wonderfully plotted and constructed mysteries filled with '50s B-actors that repeatedly show up playing sleazy dames or oily bad guys. It's also amazing about the output -- this is the second half of the second season and there are 15 episodes! Some of the titles are wonderful: The Case of The Stuttering Bishop, The Case of ohe Dangerous Dowager, The Case of the Lame Canary. They're so much fun and look great on DVD.
Posted Aug. 24, 2007,
Dexter out on DVD!
By Dennis Dermody
The first season of the fabulous Showtime series Dexter is out on DVD (Parmount) and it's just one of my favorite shows on TV. The series, based on the books by Jeff Lindsay, stars Michael C. Hall (from Six Feet Under) as a forensic scientist who works for a Florida crime unit, but is secretly a serial killer himself (but offing only really bad people who skirt the law). His late father (James Remar) was a homicide detective who recognized Dexter's killer impulses and helped him channel them and taught him the ropes on how not to get caught. His sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) is a cop and his girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) thinks he's a nice guy. Only Sgt. Doakes (Erik King) seems on to the fact that's there's something off about Dexter and is openly hostile to him.
Michael C. Hall really nails this character -- he's odd and kind of sexy and disturbing at the same time. The first season had a plot line about the wily "Ice Truck Killer" which eluded authorities but was on to Dexter -- and left little gifts in his freezer to let him know that. That whole story line played out beautifully. It's just a creepy, great show. Wonderful ensemble work in the cast featuring Lauren Velez as Lt. LaGuerta and the sensational Christian Camargo as Debra's boyfriend. I cannot wait until September when the new season starts! Check out their website: http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/home.do