21 Saturday Sep 2019
Posted in 2010's, Comedy, Drama, Historical Drama, Movie Babble, Movie Reviews
Confession time: I love Downton Abbey. I got to go to a preview screening of the long-awaited movie and as a fan of the show, I enjoyed it quite a lot! Click HERE to read my review of it!
And if you want to see the movie but need to catch up on the show, here’s a handy recap of all six series by Carson the Butler and Mrs. Hughes!
21 Saturday Sep 2019
Posted in 1990's, Comedy, Musicals, Non-Disney, TV Reviews
Tags
Al Jean, animated show, blogathon, critic, Ebert, film critic, film critics, Gene Siskel, it stinks, Jay Sherman, Jon Lovitz, Matt Groening, Mike Reiss, movie critics, Roger Ebert, Siskel, Siskel and Ebert, siskel and ebert and jay and alice, siskel and ebert blogathon, television animation, television review, The Critic, The Simpsons, tv review
Well lookee here, I’m participating in another blogathon! This time it’s 18cinemalane’s Siskel & Ebert At The Blogathon, which honors the iconic film critic duo of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. For my part, I decided to look at something Siskel & Ebert-related that doesn’t get as much attention as their reviews.
For those of you who are unaware, The Critic was a short-lived but popular animated series by The Simpsons writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss. It aired on ABC in 1994 before moving to Fox for its second and final season in 1995. It centers on Jay Sherman, the titular film critic (played by Jon Lovitz) and his life, focusing mainly on the colorful cast of friends, family and coworkers, and the many, many bad movies he’s stuck reviewing.
The highest compliment I can give The Critic is that it combines the best of The Simpsons (no big surprise there) and the best of Family Guy; its humor bounces between hilarious parodies of contemporary and classic films, playful dialogue, and zany surreal moments that you can only get away with in animation. Its characters are just as good as the casts from either of the aforementioned shows, and there’s barely a stinker in the entire series’ run. But perhaps the most fondly remembered episode is Season 2’s “Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice”, aka, the one that stars Siskel and Ebert playing themselves.
Siskel and Ebert are not the first recognized film critics to be featured in this series; Rex Reed and Gene Shallit also appeared multiple times. They even have a few lines in this very episode. As a matter of fact, Siskel and Ebert reviewed the first few episodes of The Critic on their show – and gave it a thumbs down. This isn’t a reflection of the series or their judgement, however. The problem is ABC aired the episodes out of order. After the pilot was supposed to come the official second episode “Miserable”, a humorous take on Stephen King’s Misery, but for whatever reason they showed the less interesting “Marty’s First Date” instead. It affected Siskel and Ebert’s view of the show overall despite their high praise for the movie spoof segments. But how does their premiere in the world of prime-time animated television hold up?
I think we’re in great hands.
02 Monday Sep 2019
Posted in Movie Reviews, Voting & Results
Soon, my children, it will be that time of year again. The breeze has that little extra chill, the nights and the shadows we cast grow longer, Mallowmars are briefly, blissfully plentiful, and the nightmares we usually confine to the darkness come out to play.
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get spooky.
Well, you get the idea. Here’s what you can vote for this October’s movie review:
You can vote for whatever movie you want me to look at next by leaving it in the comments or emailing me at upontheshelfshow@gmail.com. Remember, unless you’re a Patreon supporter, you can only vote once. Supporters get perks such as extra votes, early access to certain posts and adding movies of their choice to the Shelf. If I can get to $100, I can go back to making weekly tv show reviews. As of now I’m little over halfway there! Special thanks to Amelia Jones, Gordhan Rajani and Sam Minden for their contributions.
01 Sunday Sep 2019
Posted in 2000's, Comedy, Movie Reviews, Musicals
Tags
Adam Pascal, andrew lloyd webber, band, classic comedy, Comedy, deep purple, film, film review, immigrant song, instruments, Jack Black, Joan Cusack, led zepplin, Mike White, miranda cosgrove, movie, movie review, music class, music teacher, musical, no vacancy, review, Richard Linklater, rock, rock and roll, rock band, rock music, sarah silverman, school band, school comedy, School of Rock, smoke on the water, substitute teacher, teacher, The School of Rock, wagner college
There are some beloved movies you watch and think “Why the hell did it take me this long to see this?” I can officially count School of Rock as one of them. I once caught some of it on tv during a babysitting gig that was more long ago than I care to remember, but this was my first time seeing it in full. Like Mean Girls, I’ve heard a lot of the lines before I got around to seeing the movie itself, so it’s interesting to see them in their original context. And of course, it stars Jack Black in the role that made him America’s sweetheart. So let’s get to it!
And no, I have not listened to or seen the musical version yet, so I apologize for not making a lot of comparisons throughout.
