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Reviews
Samurai Jack (2001)
"Dexter's Laboratory" grows up
Samurai "Jack", Japanese emperor's son, fights Aku, satanic demigod, only to be cast into the distant, demonic future---to again face Aku, intergalactic god-industrialist.
Energetic, vibrantly eye-catching and sometimes a hoot, Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of "Dexter's Laboratory" and "Powerpuff Girls") gives us a stylistic cartoon mythology that is part "Shogun," part Jackie Chan and part "Star Wars," Mos Eisley alien bar scene included. For Tartakovsky, "Samurai Jack" is a ground-breaking rework of his unique simplicity to the scale of the sci-fi epic, that oddly enough reminds this author of Thai shadow puppets, another elegant work of simplicity that stops nothing short of telling epics. (We however can do without the interminable slow-mo fight effects, of which the follow-on series should divest itself.)
"Samurai Jack" has a bright future on Cartoon Network as long as Mr. Tartakovsky can keep him from miring in silliness---at which he nearly fails, as the child samurai, in the pilot's quick montage, studies one moment with the ancient Egyptians, but in the next hobnobs with none other than Robin Hood. (I braced myself for a cameo from Sherman and Mr. Peabody.) But we get the multicultural point, in which there is something for everyone; even for canines, who evolve quite a bit. If "Samurai Jack" evolves only a little, we are in for quite a treat.
Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (1996)
Instructive--like a train wreck
Idiotic, hideously unwatchable horror; a lesson in how NOT to screenwrite, how NOT to direct, how NOT to act, how NOT to... well, you get the point. How Mr. Berton shanghaied Ernest Borgnine into this one is surely a tale more interesting.
The mythical sorcerer Merlin--as told by Borgnine's character--sets up a magic shop in the 20th century. Why? Who knows. Little good however results, for either the characters or us, and we are left to dream of more enticing things, like trimming our toenails or changing the cat litter. A satanic cymbal-banging toy chimp (a shop escapee) appears here to sow mayhem and horror but all that is sown is boredom, which worsens as the chimp assumes a starring role and an already-scant plot turns to confetti.
The gang at Mystery Science Theatre 3000 poke just ridicule at this rubbish, but even they find it tough going, and so do we. So should you find "Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders" on the video store shelf, then please leave it there--for humanity's sake, if not your own.
Invader ZIM (2001)
No Hanna-Barbera this
Call it Dexter's Laboratory gone very bad, but Nickelodeon's `Invader Zim' is frenetic, kinetic, wickedly stylish and funny as all hell. Zim is on a mission to live up to his namesake, to his creed and to the behest of his snooty and dismissive commanders, for whom Earth is a mere back-galaxy holding-pen for fanatical screw-ups like Zim and really have no use for the place at all. But the vermilion Zim does his best anyway, and so do his creators, who expertly combine line-art animation with splendid computer graphics, a firecracker soundtrack and dialogue maybe a little too mature for the kids. Post-New Wave at last finds a home on the small screen.
Jumanji (1995)
Watts meets New England
Disaster visits a New England town: When all hell breaks loose, when beasts from nowhere trample the streets and earthquakes rip the blocks and giant mosquitoes and God-knows-what-next befall the descendants of pilgrims and fishermen, of Minutemen and revolutionaries and of immigrants yearning to breath free, those same hard-scrabble, salt-of-the-earth, no-nonsense patriots all join hands, pull together, and-- . . . loot their neighbors' downtown storefronts!
Unbelievable. Tinseltown belts out a fairly well-done and imaginative fantasy (which truly `Jumanji' is), and then--wouldn't you know it?--foul it with one of the many flies stuck in the ointment that is Hollywood, a scene so diagnostic of the intellectual sickness that has infested the industry since Hellman sang her praises to Stalin. Then again, maybe it is believable.
`Jumanji's' only other flaws: a part too small for the underrated Bebe Neuwirth (a joy to watch always and here no less so), kids full of bravery that's a little too scripted and moments of suspense that really aren't. If we can ignore all that, even the brief bit of class-warfare propaganda, then "Jumanji' becomes eminently watchable, even memorable.
But promise us you won't loot any stores next time you see monkeys charging down the street.
The Love War (1970)
Prime re-make material
Whole decades have passed since I've seen this one. Up until the late-70's, "The Love War" was TV grist for the afternoon just-home-from-school crowd or nightowls on the independent stations. It has since vanished.
Lousy title, but a terrific premise: aliens fight a low-level, unseen war in a U.S. city for territorial control of the Earth. Some neat special effects (for 1970), a starry cast and a twist in the tale make this worth another look. Certainly worth consideration for a re-make.
Random Hearts (1999)
Random plot
"Random Hearts": a story of a heated, furtive love triangle (or love quadrangle) enmeshed in a sinister tangle of, um . . . well, nothing. An adulterous relationship is cut short by tragic disaster, and the bereaved spouses (Ford and Pfeiffer) together--and predictably--piece together the mystery. Problem is, there's no mystery, so what's the point?