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Young Frankenstein, a review by Hal

Young Frankenstein: Special Edition (1974/United States) Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (United States) Director: Mel Brooks Writing: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley [Mary Shelley] (Original Material By), Gene Wilder (Screenwriter), Mel Brooks (Screenwriter) Length: 106 min. Video: Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono, French: Dolby Digital: Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital: Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital: Mono Subtitles: English

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Stars:Plot:
Mel Brooks' monstrously crazy tribute to Mary Shelley's classic pokes hilarious fun at just about every Frankenstein movie ever made. Summoned by a will to his late grandfather's castle in Transylvania, young Dr. Frankenstein (GENE WILDER) soon discovers the scientist's step-by-step manual explaining how to bring a corpse to life. Assisted by the hunchbacked Igor (MARTY FELDMAN) and the curvaceous Inga (TERI GARR), he creates a monster (PETER BOYLE) who only wants to be loved. CLORIS LEACHMAN, MADELINE KAHN, KENNETH MARS and GENE HACKMAN co-star in this inspired vision of lunacy.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Audio Commentary
• Feature Trailers
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Gallery
• Production Notes
• Closed Captioned
• Interviews

With the exception of this film and Blazing Saddles I've never been a big Mel Brooks fan, but this movie is absolutely hysterical at times.
Although the humor is a bit silly at times, the acting is just tremendous and the comedic timing, especially of Wilder and Feldman, is simply marvelous.  With many familiar scenes from the original 1931 film, Brooks has built on the story adding new and hilarious moments.  The scene where Madeleine Kahn breaks out in song with "Oh sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you..." had me laughing my ass off!  Very funny stuff!

Rating:

(From Hal's 2010 Horror Marathon Reviews on October 24th, 2010)

The Shop Around the Corner, a review by Tom

Title: The Shop Around the Corner
Year: 1940
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Rating: NR
Length: 99 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Mono, French: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Margaret Sullavan
James Stewart
Frank Morgan
Joseph Schildkraut
Sara Haden

Plot:
Tell bickering Budapest gift-shop workers Alfred and Klara that they love each other and they might call you crazy. No lovers can compare to the romantic, secret pen pals each knows only as Dear Friend.

What Alfred and Klara don't know, or course, is that they are each other's Dear Friend. In the third of their four luminous screen pairings, Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart star in this valentine to love wrapped in the ribbon of director Ernst Lubitsch's trademark touch: wit instead of buffoonery, sentiment instead of sentimentality, affection instead of attitude.

As enchanting as it was yesterday, The Shop Around the Corner was breezily updated to the electronic age when Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan clicked together in You've Got Mail. In any age, your patronage will be cheerfully rewarded.

Awards:

AFI	1940	Nominated	100 Years... 100 Laughs (2000)
AFI	1940	Won	100 Years... 100 Passions (2002)

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Featurettes
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers

This movie was the inspiration for the remake "You've Got Mail". I enjoy both movies. I think this was the first movie that I ever saw James Stewart in (could be that I saw "It's a Wonderful Life" before this one though). He did a great job here. For anyone enjoying "You've Got Mail" I recommend checking this one out. You will find many familiar scenes here, which found their way into the remake. I can definately see Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan during the restaurant scene, so similar was it.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on March 7th, 2010)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Lateline: The Complete Series (1998/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Paramount Home Entertainment (United States) Length: 417 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Subtitles:

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Plot:
Late-night TV news programs get turned on their ear in Lateline, the hilarious sitcom spoofing the stories, talent and upheaval behing the cameras. Based in Washington, D.C., Lateline follows news correspondent Al Freundlich (Al Franken of TV's "Saturday Night Live"), who works side-by-side with an entertaining gang of zany, ambitious and pretentious co-workers. This three-disc collection contains the entire LatelineG. Gordon Liddy, Kathie Lee Gifford, Buddy Hackett, Joan Lunden, Conan O'Brien, Rosemary Clooney, Allison Janney, Martin Sheen, Vanessa Williams... and many more. It's time for LatelineLateline
1.01 Pilot Episode
Writer: Al Franken (Created By), John Markus (Created By), Al Franken (Writer), John Markus (Writer)
Director: Andy Ackerman
Cast: Megyn Price (Gale Ingersoll), Miguel Ferrer (Vic Karp), Catherine Lloyd Burns (Mona), Ajay Naidu (Raji), Sanaa Lathan (Briana), Robert Foxworth (Pearce McKenzie), Al Franken (Al Freundlich), Natasha Pavlovich (Yelena), Zaid Farid (Darryl), Cal Bartlett (Tobacco Spokesman), Bob Glouberman (Prompter Techie), M. Joycelyn Elders (Herself), Candace J. Gingrich (Herself), G. Gordon Liddy (Himself), Ralph Nader (Himself), Laurin Sydney (Herself), Terry Murphy (Herself), Robert Prosky (Boone LeGarde), Dana Carvey (Sen. Crowl Pickens (uncredited))

A short-lived series I haven't watched in a long time. The pilot episode is a really great introduction to the series. The plot is nothing new, but I really liked the execution of it.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 5th, 2012)