Seth Green

DVD Review: ‘Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II’ Delivers Laughs

BrianTT — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:59:18 -0600

CHICAGO – Who would have guessed that some of the best “Star Wars”-related material of the ’00s would be produced by Seth Green? And yet, there’s no denying that a lot of what Green delivers with “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II” is smarter than a majority of the product coming out of the Lucas machine. Check out the special, now on DVD, and see for yourself.

DVD Rating: 3.5/5.0

If you’re completely unfamiliar with “Robot Chicken,” perhaps a “Star Wars” special is not the best place to start. “Robot Chicken” airs during the Adult Swim portion of the Cartoon Network line-up and features stop-motion animation inspired by and using action figures of most of our youth. Most episodes run just over ten minutes and feature dozens of “sketches,” some of which may just be brief jokes that last less a few seconds intertwined with longer scenes.

Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II was released on DVD on July 21st, 2009.”
Photo credit: Warner Brothers Home Video

Naturally, any show with an ADD personality like “Robot Chicken” is going to be hit-and-miss. Having said that, the “Robot Chicken” batting average is well above what you would consider adequate for a show like this one. If a sketch bombs, it’s usually a matter of seconds before one works.

And, as you might imagine, a show with writers as knowledgeable about pop culture and geek history as “Robot Chicken” is bound to shine when they enter the world that George Lucas built. They are speaking to an entire generation who has themselves imagined what conversations between the Emperor and Darth Vader might be like or dreamed of continuing adventures of Boba Fett. And the fact that royalty like Billy Dee Williams and Carrie Fisher return to voice their own characters? It doesn’t get much better than that for “Star Wars” buffs.

Believe it or not, “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II” does have a loose plot. A majority of the sketches focus on the bounty hunters, especially Boba Fett, or the Emperor and the building of the second Death Star. In between the “plot-centric” sketches, the writers hit everything from Anakin killing younglings to Jar-Jar doing a hilarious “Gecko” commercial. Check out an hysterical clip below:

“My Little Tauntaun” commercials, AT-AT races, brutal Ewok violence - “Robot Chicken: Star Wars” is a fanboy dream come true.

However, the DVD is a slightly underwhelming affair. Yes, it’s cool to have an extended version of the episode (it runs about 36 minutes, as opposed to the 22 minutes that were broadcast), but “Robot Chicken” should be on Blu-Ray and it should have more logically organized special features.

Take for example “Chicken Nuggets”. It’s a feature that allows for an introduction to each sketch to play, highlight Green, the writers, and/or the voice actors. Great, right? Why do I have to wait for an image of a chicken and hit enter on my remote to see each intro? There should be an option that just allows them to play automatically.

The other special features are cool but brief and oddly laid-out. A highlight is a trip to Skywalker Ranch, where Lucas himself lays praise on the “Chicken” boys. It doesn’t get much better than that for a “Star Wars” fan.

Despite my criticisms of the DVD presentation, “Robot Chicken” is underrated, clever television. “Star Wars” fans, animation fans, and just comedy fans in general should check it out.

‘Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II’ was released by Warner Brothers Home Video and stars voice work by Seth Green, Seth MacFarlane, Breckin Meyer, Abraham Benrubi, Bob Bergen, Ahmed Best, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Donald Faison, and Andy Richter. The show was released on July 21st, 2009. It is not rated.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

DVD Review: Fifth Season of HBO’s ‘Entourage’ Entertains, But Shows Age

BrianTT — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:34:59 -0600

CHICAGO – How does a show about the “next big thing” in Hollywood age? Do we really want to see the boys of “Entourage” grow up? The first two seasons of Creator Doug Ellin’s incredibly clever show crackled with wit rarely seen on television and stood with the best comedies. But season five, now on DVD, shows a series with a slight identity crisis, a comedy that is still entertaining but missing the spark that once defined it.

DVD Rating: 3.5/5.0

If there was a “jump the shark” moment for “Entourage” it was, ironically, the same disastrous event in the fictional career of Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) - the fictional epic “Medellin”. The writers and producers spent so much time on the project that they lost a lot of the creative energy from the first two seasons in the story of an ambitious film gone disastrously wrong.

Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season was released on DVD on June 30th, 2009.
Photo credit: HBO Home Video

Season five of the show features both a show and its characters in the middle of a crisis. Just as Vince can’t figure out what to do next with his career and his boys struggle with their own identities a bit, the season fluctuates wildly in quality. Some episodes and arcs are hilarious, including great guest turns by Jason Patric, Seth Green, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, but the season is wildly hit-and-miss and never quite as funny as it used to be.

Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season was released on DVD on June 30th, 2009.
Photo credit: HBO Home Video

The fifth season of “Entourage” opens after the scathing Cannes Film Festival response to what Vinny thought would be his shot at Oscar glory, “Medellin”. With no one willing to hire his best friend and client, Eric (Kevin Connolly) really goes to work in season five, finding new clients, including a pair of writers (Giovanni Ribisi & Lukas Haas) who may have the right vehicle for Mr. Chase. Meanwhile, Johnny “Drama” (Kevin Dillon) struggles with love and “Turtle” (Jerry Ferrara) starts a romance with Jamie-Lynn Sigler (playing herself and returning for ten episodes in season six).

This season of “Entourage” could have been subtitled “the boys against the world”. Each episode seemed to be about one of the four boys or Jeremy Piven’s uber-agent Ari Gold battling someone new. Whether it was Paul Ben-Victor’s lunatic studio head or the great Stellan Skarsgard as a director giving Vincent’s lines away, someone was always trying to keep this entourage from digging themselves out of the “Medellin” hole.

It may not be as pitch-perfect or fresh as it was the first few years, but there is still enough to like about “Entourage” to warrant a look on DVD. For every scene or episode that feels a bit off or isn’t quite funny enough, there’s a laugh-out-loud moment or insightful Hollywood arc that balances it out. Like Vinny Chase himself, don’t count out “Entourage” rising to the top again.

Aren’t most people watching HBO in HD nowadays? So, why isn’t the network releasing all of their shows on Blu-Ray? There’s no excuse for a show that’s so much about beautiful people in beautiful locations to not be in beautiful 1080P. And the standard definition picture is below average for HBO Home Video with some noticeable visual inconsistencies.

As for special features, HBO usually delivers good ones but not a large amount of them and that standard holds true for the fifth season release of “Entourage,” which includes three commentary tracks with Ellin, Connolly, Ferrara, Grenier, and producer Ally Musika, and a featurette called “The Celebrity Factor”.

Finally, after you’ve caught up with the boys of “Entourage” with season five, you should know that season six is currently airing on HBO. The season premiere aired on Sunday, July 12th, 2009.

‘Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season’ was released by HBO Home Video and stars Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Rex Lee, Perrey Reeves, and Jeremy Piven. It was created by Doug Ellin. The show was released on June 30th, 2009. It is not rated.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy’

BrianTT — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:37:59 -0600

CHICAGO – Fans of “American Dad!” and “Family Guy” should definitely take a look at “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy,” a Blu-Ray release of short animated films in the same style as the random, tangential asides that helped make Stewie Griffin a household name.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

“Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy” is one of the first home releases to be spawned by the internet viral video revolution. The shorts originally aired on YouTube as a part of the “SethComedy” channel on the site. They were even originally sponsored by Burger King and, according to Wikipedia, reached 3 million video views after only two days in release.

Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Comedy was released on Blu-Ray on May 12th, 2009.
Photo credit: Fox

The short films now uncensored and assembled in HD all feel like the asides from “Family Guy” but with even less concern about censorship or network approval. Almost every short runs under a minute - some even just a few seconds - and they almost all contain an f-bomb or something else that would get censored by FOX. They could have called it “Family Guy Writers Unleashed”. Every random aside Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry, or the rest of the team ever thought of is now brought to animated life.

Of course, as with any series of shorts, some hit and some miss. The ratio of hits in “Cavalcade of Comedy”” is actually much higher than I expected, especially given the so-so season of “Family Guy” that just ended. Some of the shorts fall flat, but every few minutes you will come across one that works.

Going from YouTube to HD seems like an unecessary upgrade, but “Cavalcade of Comedy” looks good in full-frame HD and sounds fine with an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track.

The special features were clearly an afterthought at best. I don’t see why MacFarlane, Seth Green, or anyone else involved the production couldn’t have taken a day to film something about the process or the history of the shorts. All fans will find is a five-minute bit about the red carpet premiere and some still galleries.

‘Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Comedy’ is released by Fox Home Video and features voice work by Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mike Henry, and many more. It was written by Seth MacFarlane and many more. The Blu-Ray was released on May 12th, 2009. It is not rated.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Comedy Blu-Ray Round Up, May 12, 2009: ‘Major League,’ ‘Wayne's World,’ ‘Black Sheep’

BrianTT — Tue, 12 May 2009 10:07:43 -0600

CHICAGO – Paramount Home Video is unleashing waves of catalog titles this month, starting with an interesting quintet of laugh-fests that range wildly in subject matter and quality.

What do they have in common? Well, three are from the “Saturday Night Live” factory - “Wayne’s World,” “Wayne’s World 2,” and “Black Sheep,” but the other two are not. Those three are also from the ’90s, another tempting way to bunch these random titles together, but “Major League” is an ’80s comedy and “Without a Paddle” is from the ’00s.

Even quality levels seem like an inappropriate way to lump these titles together as even diehard fans couldn’t claim that Chris Farley’s “Black Sheep” or the silly “Paddle” should stand next to “Wayne’s World” or the beloved “Major League”.

Why even try and lump them together? They’re all comedies. They’re all Paramount. Anyone can find at least one title to add to their collection. Pick your favorite.

All five titles were released on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009.

“Black Sheep”

Photo credit: Paramount

Synopsis: “Meet Mike Donnelly (Chris Farley). He’s one lovable, hilarious accident waiting to happen. Dedicated to helping his big brother Al (Tim Matheson) win the race for Washington State governor, he turns every opportunity for votes into an embarrassing disaster. Campaign aide and super slacker Steve Dodds (David Spade) volunteers to baby-sit Mike. Big mistake! When Mike discovers that the incumbent governor is a crook, he dives headfirst into a whole new level of well-intended destruction. Chris Farley and David Spade, the stars of Tommy Boy, once again show why they are “the comedy team of the ’90s!” (Leo Quinones, KIIS-FM). Directed by Penelope Spheeris (Wayne’s World) and costarring Gary Busey, Black Sheep is “a crowd-pleaser directed with maximum energy!” (Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times). Featuring an electrifying performance by super Seattle band Mudhoney!”

“Black Sheep” stars Chris Farley, David Spade, Tim Matheson, Christine Ebersole, and Gary Busey. The film was written by Fred Wolf and directed by Penelope Spheeris and is rated PG-13.

The Blu-Ray video is presented in 1080p High Definition with an English 5.0 Dolby TrueHD track. There are no special features.

“Major League: Wild Thing Edition”

Photo credit: Paramount

Synopsis: “She’s beautiful, smart, goal-oriented, and she just inherited the Cleveland Indians. Unfortunately, she wants to move the franchise to Miami, and a losing season is her only ticket to Florida. So she signs the wildest gang of screwballs that ever spit tobacco.

They’re handsome, but they’re hopeless! Her catcher (Tom Berenger) is a washed-up womanizer who struck out in life. Her ace pitcher (Charlie Sheen) is a punked-out crazy who struck out with the law. And her third baseman (L.A. Law’s Corbin Bernsen) is more concerned fielding endorsements than grounders.

Throw in a busload of other misfits and you’ve got yourself a hilarious line-up that’s destined for disaster! Or is it?”

“Major League” stars Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Corbin Bernsen, Margaret Whitton, James Gammon, Rene Russo, and Bob Uecker. The film was written and directed by David S. Ward and is rated R.

The Blu-Ray video is presented in 1080p High Definition with an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track. Special features include a commentary by writer/director David S. Ward and producer Chris Chesser, “My Kinda Team,” “A Major League Look at Major League,” “Bob Uecker: Just a Bit Outside,” Alternate Ending with Filmmaker Introduction, “A Tour of Cerrano’s Locker,” and a photo gallery.

“Wayne’s World”

Photo credit: Paramount

Synopsis: “In the tradition of The Ten Commandment, Lawrence of Arabia, and Gandhi comes a sweeping screen epic bursting with spectacle and drama…NOT! It’s Wayne’s World, the hilarious, party-down movie of the year, featuring rockin’ tunes, radical babes, and your most excellent hosts, Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey). When a sleazy TV exec (Rob Lowe) offers Wayne and Garth a fat contract to tape their late-night cable-access who at his network, the two can’t believe their good fortune (“No way.” “WAY!”). But they soon discover the road from basement to big time is a gnarly one, fraught with danger, temptation, and ragin’ party opportunities.

Can Wayne win the affections of rock goddess Cassandra (Tia Carrere)? Will Garth get dunked by his dream girl (Donna Dixon) at the donut shop? Serious question, dude, and there’s only one way to find out - watch Wayne’s World!”

“Wayne’s World” stars Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe, and Tia Carrere. It was written by Mike Myers and Bonnie Turner & Terry Turner and directed by Penelope Spheeris and is rated PG-13.

The Blu-Ray video is presented in 1080p High Definition with an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track. Special features include a commentary by director Penelope Spheeris, “Wayne’s World Extreme Close-Up: Exclusive Cast & Crew Interviews,” and the theatrical trailer.

“Wayne’s World 2”

Photo credit: Paramount

Synopsis: “It’s 2 excellent to be true! Wayne and Garth are back (and front) in the most awaited video since Wayne’s World - Wayne’s World 2! Having achieved godlike status as a late-night TV personality, Wayne (Mike Myers) now confronts the question that has plagued man for centuries: Is there life after cable? Wayne gets his answer in a dream, wherein a very famous (and very dead) rock star says, “Put on a rock concert, and they will come.” So Wayne and Garth (Dana Carvey) present “Waynestock.” But first, Wayne must save his girlfriend Cassandra (Tia Carrere) from a sinister record producer (Christopher Walken), as Garth grapples with the advances of mega-babe Honey Hornee (Kim Basinger). Party on!”

“Wayne’s World 2” stars Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Kim Basinger, Christopher Walken, and Tia Carrere. It was written by Mike Myers and Bonnie Turner & Terry Turner and directed by Stephen Surjik and is rated PG-13.

The Blu-Ray video is presented in 1080p High Definition with an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track. Special features include a commentary by director Stephen Surjik and “Wayne’s World 2 Extreme Close-Up: Exclusive Cast & Crew Interviews”.

“Without a Paddle”

Photo credit: Paramount

Synopsis: “Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard star in this offbeat comedy about childhood friends whose lives have drifted apart but must reunite following the sudden death of a fourth friend.

The trio finds out that their friend was hot on the trail of the $200,000 that vanished with real-life airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper in 1971. After discovering a map left behind, they decide to follow its course to claim the loot. They soon run into a few things that their friends hadn’t planned on, including backwoods pot farmers with itchy trigger fingers, beautiful tree-living hippies, and a bear with maternal instincts that knows no bounds!

Also starring a hilarious Burt Reynolds, Without a Paddle proves that it’s better to be down a river than up a creek.”

“Without a Paddle” stars Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, Dax Shepard, Ethan Suplee, and Burt Reynolds. It was written by Jay Leggett & Mitch Rouse and directed by Steven Brill and is rated PG-13.

The Blu-Ray video is presented in 1080p High Definition with an English 5.1 Dolby Digital track. Special features include a commentary by director Steven Brill, video commentary by the cast and director, “MTV’s Making the Movie: Without a Paddle,” 13 additional scenes with optional director commentary, 6 MTV interstitials, and the theatrical trailer.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Sex Drive: Unrated and Cream-filled’ Edition Delivers What Title Promises

BrianTT — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:03:58 -0700

Blu-Ray Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – The Blu-Ray for the raunchy teen comedy “Sex Drive” is simply ridiculous. And I think I mean that in a good way. As a DVD critic, I’m constantly faced with “Unrated” editions that don’t really live up to their name. You can say a lot about “Sex Drive,” but the Blu-Ray is undeniably “Unrated and Cream-filled”.

We’ve all seen unrated DVDs with a minute or two of extra footage, none of which would have earned the film anything harder than an R in theaters. That is NOT the case with “Sex Drive”. Playing with the very concept of “Unrated” DVDs, the team behind “Sex Drive” have made what I would call the “Horny Stoner Version” of their teen sex comedy and it almost needs to be seen to be believed.

Sex Drive was released on Blu-Ray on February 24th, 2009.
Photo credit: Summit

The unrated version, which the writers warn you sucks at the beginning, includes twenty minutes of gratuitous nudity and alternate takes. How gratuitous? Occasionally, they’ll just green screen in some boobs or a flaccid penis. It’s ridiculous but the guts it took to even burn it to Blu-Ray is somewhat admirable.

Sex Drive was released on Blu-Ray on February 24th, 2009.
Photo credit: Summit

But what about the movie itself? Watch a bit of the unrated version just to admire its ridiculousness, but stick with the theatrical version, a so-so teen sex comedy that will play better at homes than it did in theaters. Not nearly on the scale of “Superbad” or even the “Harold and Kumar” movies, “Sex Drive” feels ultimately hollow but features some pretty original supporting performances. Even still, kids will need some serious beer goggles to get over all of the flaws of “Sex Drive”.

The problem is that we’ve seen all of these characters before. I’ve long said that writers of teen sex flicks underestimate their audiences desire to see something new. “Superbad” worked because it felt fresh. Nothing about “Sex Drive” feels fresh. Only the levels of alcohol poisoning have changed.

Once again, we have the awkward virgin who’s really in love with his best friend and the slick player who will surely be taught a lesson about love by the film’s end. The lovable loser this time is Josh (Ian Zuckerman), the best friend is Felicia (Amanda Crew), and the playa is Lance (Clark Duke). In an inspired bit of casting, Duke, most well-known for the internet phenomenon “Clark and Michael” with best friend Michael Cera, is not the first person most would think of for a ladies man. It’s the only thing inspired about “Sex Drive”.

Duke has good comic timing and supporting players Seth Green and James Marsden can be very funny but Zuckerman and Crew are a black hole for comedy, sucking the project in with boring characters and dull personalities.

Sex Drive was released on Blu-Ray on February 24th, 2009.
Photo credit: Summit

Ian works at a donut shop at the mall and has been communicating with an online girlfriend (he hopes) named Ms_Tasty. The road movie begins when the object of Ian’s e-affection says she’ll do him if he comes down to Knoxville. The trio pile into their brother’s ‘69 GTO and begins a series of unusual encounters with an angry hitchhiker, sex-crazed redneck, and a sarcastic Amish guy.

The writers clearly know that “Sex Drive” is derivative and their solution was merely to push up the gross-out humor to eleven. The movie opens with underwear soaked in male fluids hitting a woman in the face and spend another 105 minutes trying to top it. It’s gross-out desperation. And it reeks.

The movie is saved from complete disaster by Duke, Green, and Marsden (who is clearly having a blast improvising a riff on Sean William Scott’s Stifler or, even more appropriately, Bill Paxton’s Chet from “Weird Science”), but the awkward, poorly cast leads and the lackluster script cause this car to break down long before it reaches its destination.

The “Unrated and Creme-filled” version of “Sex Drive” includes the aforementioned unrated edition, a filmmaker audio commentary on the original version, the hilariously named “Sex Drive: Making a Masterpiece,” “The Marsden Dilemma,” and “Clark: Duke of the Internet”. The film is presented in 1080p with a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

‘Sex Drive: Unrated and Cream-filled’ is released by Summit Home Video and stars Josh Zuckerman, Amanda Crew, Clark Duke, Seth Green, and James Marsden. It was written by Sean Anders & John Morris and directed by Anders. It was released on February 24th, 2009. It is rated R and unrated.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Hookup: 40 Admit-Two Passes to Chicago Screening of ‘Sex Drive’ With James Marsden, Seth Green

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:03:56 -0600

CHICAGO – In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 40 admit-two passes up for grabs to the Chicago screening of “Sex Drive,” which stars James Marsden, Seth Green, Clark Duke, Josh Zuckerman and Amanda Crew.

To win your free pass to the advance screening of “Sex Drive” in Chicago courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, all you need to do is be one of the first 40 people to submit a comment in this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup. That’s it!

The screening will be held on Oct. 8, 2008 at 7 p.m. near downtown Chicago. Directions to enter this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup and immediately win can be found beneath the graphic below.

“Sex Drive” features James Marsden, Seth Green, Clark Duke, Josh Zuckerman and Amanda Crew.
Image credit: Summit Entertainment

“Sex Drive” is about a high school senior who drives across the U.S. with his best friends to hook up with a babe he met online.

To secure your free tickets now, make sure you’re logged into your HollywoodChicago.com account. If you don’t yet have one, you can quickly register here. Having an account with a valid e-mail address is required.

Then, simply add a new comment in the form below. In your comment, include an answer to this simple question:

Have you ever met anyone from the Internet If so, how’d it go?

Like all Hookups here, this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film is simple: The first 40 people to comment below win! We will be in touch with the 40 winners to distribute your passes. “Sex Drive” opens nationwide on Oct. 17, 2008.

5:52 p.m. update on Sept. 29, 2008: Due to popular demand, we have received authorization from the film studio to increase this Hookup from 25 admit-two passes to 40 admit-two passes.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com