DVD Collectors Online

Cashback, a review by Rich

Title: Cashback

Runtime:102
Certificate:R
Year:2006
Genres:Comedy, Romance

Plot:When art student Ben Willis goes through a painful break-up, he develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket. There he meets a colorful cast of characters, all of whom have their own means of dealing with the boredom of an eight-hour-shift. Ben imagines freezing time, which allows him to see the beauty of the everyday world and the people inside it - especially Sharon, the quiet checkout girl, who just may hold the answer to resolving Ben's Insomnia.

My Review:
Quirky little British film, written produced and directed by the young Sean Ellis.
It follows a narrative from lead Sean Biggerstaff, an insomniac artist overcoming a break-up who takes a job on the nightshift at Sainsburys. Enter a lot of strange and funny characters, with traits very recognisable in many English people, and some gentle comedy moments. The main story follows his appreciation of the female beauty, and his amazing ability to freeze time by cracking his fingers, allowing him to strip female shoppers and draw them in a variety of poses without their knowledge.
I must admit that many parts of the film I found very erotic, the ladies he stripped were extremely attractive and typically buxom, the flashbacks to his childhood and adolescent discovery of women (through a Swedish student and schoolgirl friend) were sweetly handled but again very provocative, and the whole film feels like we are part of his dreamy existence.
The negatives are few, a football scene was hopeless, some of the dialogue padded and pointless, and one 'time-freeze' aspect that was not particularly explained enough by the end of the film.
But overall this is an original, funny, arousing, bizarre indie film that I feel many members here will really appreciate in their collections.


(From December Marathons - DISCUSSION AND REVIEW THREAD on December 14th, 2009)

Freaky Friday (1976), a review by addicted2dvd

Freaky Friday (1976/United States) Buena Vista Home Entertainment Director: Gary Nelson Writing: Mary Rodgers (Screenwriter), Mary Rodgers (Original Material By) Length: 98 min. Rating: G Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround Subtitles: English, Spanish

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Stars:
Barbara Harris as Mrs. Andrews
Jodie Foster as Annabel
John Astin as Mr. Andrews
Patsy Kelly as Mrs. Schmauss
Dick Van Patten as Harold Jennings
Vicki Schreck as Virginia

Plot:
Now experience all the laughs of the original comedy classic that inspired Disney's hilarious hit remake. Trading places was never so funny, and it could only happen on Friday the 13th! that's when the tomboyish and free-spirited Annabel (Jodie Foster) switches bodies with her straitlaced mother, Ellen (Barbara Harris), and suddenly finds herself responsible for running the entire household. In turn Ellen, now in her daughter's body, faces the daunting challenges of school, including a typing test, field hockey competition, and much more!

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Bonus Trailers
• Featurettes
• Interactive Games
• Closed Captioned

This movie is just plain fun! I got several chuckles out of it. I really enjoyed the field Hockey game I got a few laughs out of those scenes. The Baseball game in the park was pretty fun as well. Then there was the last scene of the movie... and once again I couldn't help but to laugh at it. There were a few familiar faces in this one... other then what I listed above there was the guy that played Arnold in Happy Days... as well as Marvin Kaplan who I have seen in several TV Series of the time. and then there is Sorrell Brooke as the principle... who was of course Boss Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard. I am the first to admit that I enjoyed the remake of Freaky Friday with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan... but I have to say... I prefer this one!

The DVD itself isn't bad... but it could have been much better. Both the audio and video are just fine... but when it comes to extras it leaves a bit to be desired. There is one game you can play... which is a match game. Very simple and very boring once you play it once or twice. But the "Look Back" with Jodie Foster was pretty cool. She don't only look back on Freaky Friday... but all the movies she did for Disney. I did enjoy watching it. And that is all the movie related extras you get. The only other thing on the disc is the "also from Disney" trailers.





(From TV Stars in the Movies: On-Going Mega Marathon on September 5th, 2011)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Title: Andy Richter Controls the Universe: The Complete Series
Year: 2002
Director:
Rating: NR
Length: 417 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Stereo, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles:

Stars:
Andy Richter
Paget Brewster
Irene Molloy
Jonathan Slavin
James Patrick Stuart

Plot:
The rules of comedy are about to be broken in Andy Richter Controls The Universe, one of the funniest sitcoms in TV history. A bored writer of instruction manuals, Andy spends his office hours daydreaming about what his life could, should and ought to be. Starring in his outlandish fantasies are his unlucky-in-love boss Jessica (Paget Brewster), best buddy Keith (James Patrick Stuart), quirky pal Byron (Jonathan Slavin) and Andy's secret object of desire, Wendy the receptionist (Irene Molloy). Featuring the Emmy®-nominated series' 14 episode run – plus 5 that were never shown on network TV – this it cutting edge lunacy at its irreverent best, a mirth-quaking 10 on the Richter scale!

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Commentary
Featurettes

When Andy Richter left the Late Night Show with Conan O'Brien, he started this great (but sadly short-lived) comedy series. It has a great cast. I especially liked Jonathan Slavin as Andy's new collegue Byron. Paget Brewster is really beautiful in this series. The main gag in this series is, that you always see something really strange happening, which turns out to be Andy's imagination, followed by his "...this is what really happened".

Episodes:

#	Episode	Rating
01	Pilot
02	Grief Counselor
03	Little Andy in Charge
04	Second Episode
05	Gimma A C
06	Wedding
07	We're All the Same, Only Different
08	Twins
09	France
10	Holy Sheep
11	Relationship Ripcord
12	The Show Might Go On
13	Crazy In Rio
14	The Maid Man
15	Bully the Kid
16	Duh Dog
17	Final Fantasy
18	Saturday Early Evening Fever
19	Charity Begins D Block

(From Tom's Random Reviews on May 24th, 2009)