0ur opinion: essential video:Decades ago, documentary filmmaker Leon Gast attempted to complete a feature about the 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle' championship bout between boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire. Sundry complications, though, held up the project until its release in 1996. lt was well worth the delay. From Gast's perspective of modern history, the six weeks Ali and Foreman were forced to spend waiting in Africa for their fight to take place now looks ...
0ur opinion: :Produced as the title segment to a six-part series, this 90-minute documentary traces the evolution of jazz from its 19th-century origins in New 0rleans's Congo Square, where slaves first introduced American listeners to the complex rhythms and earthy textures of African music. How that cultural diaspora combined with European and American folk, classical, and popular styles to become jazz, 'America's classical music,' is an oft-told tale, but it's handsomely served here by an intelligent script shaped by ...
0ur opinion: :Tim Reid's wonderful film about life in the black neighborhood of Glen Allan, Mississippi, from the mid-'40s to the dawn of the civil rights movement, is thick with terrific, inspired actors and possessed of a mature, limpid visual style. The story is told from the point of view of a young boy raised by his stalwart grandfather and his kind aunt. But the collective tale of a community coming to terms with the risks it must take ...
0ur opinion: :Tim Reid's wonderful film about life in the black neighborhood of Glen Allan, Mississippi, from the mid-'40s to the dawn of the civil rights movement, is thick with terrific, inspired actors and possessed of a mature, limpid visual style. The story is told from the point of view of a young boy raised by his stalwart grandfather and his kind aunt. But the collective tale of a community coming to terms with the risks it must take ...
0ur opinion: :Tim Reid's wonderful film about life in the black neighborhood of Glen Allan, Mississippi, from the mid-'40s to the dawn of the civil rights movement, is thick with terrific, inspired actors and possessed of a mature, limpid visual style. The story is told from the point of view of a young boy raised by his stalwart grandfather and his kind aunt. But the collective tale of a community coming to terms with the risks it must take ...
0ur opinion: :Basketball legend Michael Jordan is both subject and star of this video, which begins with a dizzying montage of Jordan's spectacular moves on the court. That's followed by dramatic feature about a dejected teenager who doesn't make the cut at a high school basketball team tryout but who winds up, as if by magic, getting coaching from Jordan himself. Pertinent clips from Jordan's college and pro career illustrate particular points as he delivers lessons about determination and ...
0ur opinion: :The neo-pop divas of the late 20th century may have turned up the glamour, and a few even introduced formidable technical prowess, epitomized by Mariah Carey's seemingly helium-induced falsetto (the bane of canine fans everywhere) or Celine Dion's breast-beating, stentorian climaxes. Yet only a few verses from an earlier, charter member of the first-name-only club provides instant perspective: when Ella opened her mouth, that perfectly pitched, luminous voice could leap octaves without breaking a sweat, its tonal ...
0ur opinion: :The neo-pop divas of the late 20th century may have turned up the glamour, and a few even introduced formidable technical prowess, epitomized by Mariah Carey's seemingly helium-induced falsetto (the bane of canine fans everywhere) or Celine Dion's breast-beating, stentorian climaxes. Yet only a few verses from an earlier, charter member of the first-name-only club provides instant perspective: when Ella opened her mouth, that perfectly pitched, luminous voice could leap octaves without breaking a sweat, its tonal ...
0ur opinion: :This family drama begins in a gritty Chicago neighborhood with a jobless, hopeless mother (Alfre Woodard) pouring her efforts into the bottle and various drugs rather than her troubled daughter and wise-beyond-his-years son. But the movie soon heads south, as the title suggests, when Mom and kids are sent to live with an uncle for the summer. Their lives change, of course, but that's the only predictable aspect of this 107-minute film. First-time director Maya Angelou brings ...
The Pharos GPS Phone 600e isn't a horrible smart phone, but the lack of navigation software and subpar call quality detracts from its overall appeal. Plus, you can get more for your money with other GPS-enabled smart phones.
Thanks to a rich set of features and some great new additions, Evite maintains its stature as the top service for issuing e-invitations —but competitors are catching up.
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Stephen Sondheim's Victorian horror thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is generally considered his greatest work, macabre but darkly humorous with a viscerally powerful score that has found a home both on Broadway and in opera houses. George Hearn (who replaced Len Cariou of the original Broadway cast) plays the title character, a wronged man whose lust for revenge drives him to murder (an 18th-century legend who has been traced to a real-life barber), and Angela Lansbury plays his partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett, who finds a practical business use for Todd's victims. This combination of horror and humor is echoed in Sondheim's score: brooding menace ("The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," "My Friend"), achingly beautiful ballads ("Johanna," "Not While I'm Around"), clever puns ("A Little Priest"), coloratura arias ("Green Finch and Linnet Bird"), and intricate choral and ensemble numbers.
Continuing a fortuitous tradition of capturing the Sondheim legacy on video recordings, this performance was filmed before a live audience in Los Angeles during the 1982 national tour. Almost 20 years later, Hearn returned to the role opposite Patti LuPone in an acclaimed concert production. But Sweeney Todd is an especially compelling experience in this 1982 version, complete with the clever staging tricks (e.g., the barber's chair) and as close to the original cast as we're likely to see. --David Horiuchi
A guilty, guilty pleasure, perhaps not one a left-wing feminist should be admitting to in public. Female boomers should recall yearly TV reruns of this Rodgers and Hammerstein production, featuring such delights as "Impossible" and "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" It may appear a bit stark to younger viewers, but part of the charm of this 1964 network TV special, a remake of the live 1957 telecast originally built around Julie Andrews, is its utter simplicity. An extremely young Lesley Ann Warren and Stuart Damon (of General Hospital fame) are joined by Ginger Rogers, Walter Pidgeon, and Celeste Holm. Warren is all sweetness and innocence without a hint of saccharine artificiality, while Damon is a clear-eyed romantic. This very handsome love story is a bit of an oddity, but worth owning just for the memorable score. --Rochelle O'Gorman
John Waters made his bid for PG respectability with this enjoyably trashy comedy about the racial integration of a teen dance show on Baltimore television in the early '60s. Waters, as always, makes a virtue of junk culture and the powerful emotional forces it can represent as kids vie to get on the show. Meanwhile, a parade of former stars (Pia Zadora, Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono) and pseudostars (Divine, Ricki Lake) cross the screen, playing freakish characters absorbed by thoughts of fame. (Waters himself turns up as a weirdo psychiatrist.) This transitional film for Waters is rough going at times and not as interesting or funny as his later features Cry-Baby and Serial Mom, but it's worth a look. --Tom Keogh
Martina McBride has long been a champion of music as social consciousness, particularly for abused women ("Independence Day") and children. On Waking Up Laughing, her ninth album and the follow-up to Timeless, her platinum-selling album of country classics, she advances the theme while expanding it. While two songs explore the issue of unwed mothers (particularly the exquisite "Love Land," which closes the album), and another, "Beautiful Again," touches on child sexual abuse, her overall repertoire embraces the wholeness of family, and of standing strong together in the face of adversity and defeat. Musically, McBride has always proved to be an elegant thorn--her song selection is often inspired (and here, she co-wrote three tunes, including the skyscraping single "Anyway"), but she has tended to use her huge, ride-the-wave soprano full-tilt, without employing the subtle shadings that would make her even more emotionally resonant. On Waking Up Laughing she seems to have worked on the problem, yet in her second foray as solo producer, she still tends to gild the lily instrumentally--inflating string bridges between choruses, for example, or loading the opening country-pop track, "If I Had Your Name," with a Southern-rock guitar break, a listen-to-me fiddle showcase, a Celtic guitar intro, and a close that brings to mind George Harrison's sitar in play-it-backward mode. That said, she makes fine use of what sounds like a black female choir on the uplifting "For These Times," and wisely keeps the haunting break-up ballad "Tryin' to Find a Reason" (with Keith Urban's harmony vocals and guitar solo) lean and affecting. As McBride works to refine her pastiche of creativity, commerciality, and social awareness, she slyly takes more chances than one might think, all the while rallying old fans and making new ones. --Alanna Nash
For right-minded buyers of the reissued Muppet Christmas Carol soundtrack, the odds of disappointment are about as remote as Miss Piggy's chances with Kermit. If you loved the movie, you will love the loopy mayhem of the Muppet Brass Buskers ("Good King Wenceslas"), the cartoonish malice of the black-hearted misanthropes Marley & Marley ("Marley & Marley"), and the hope-swollen harmonies of Tiny Tim and Family ("Bless Us All"), Muppeted here to hilariously humble effect. If, on the other hand, your interest in this disc has more to do with its inclusion in the way-narrow Christmas-record-for-kids category--if the spirit of the season doesn't extend, for you, to the magic of the Muppets--you may want to keep browsing, as it's a soundtrack first (overture, instrumentals, and all) and a Christmas CD second. That's not to suggest you're stuck with an un-fun disc should it land on your holiday stack without a prior screening, though. Miles Goodman's score sweeps and inspires, and certain tracks--"One More Sleep 'til Christmas" and "Fozziwig's Party"--are future classics. (Note to the right-minded: After a misstep on the original release, Martina McBride's version of "When Love is Gone" is back.) -Tammy La Gorce
