Comedy

C.H.O.M.P.S.

/ / Home Video
  • Title: C.H.O.M.P.S.
  • IMDb: link

Recently re-released on home video, 1979’s C.H.O.M.P.S. was live-action kiddie fare about a robot dog and ridiculous criminals (Chuck McCann and Red Buttons). A struggling young inventor (Wesley Eure) creates a robotic version of his own dog as the next line in home security. While he’s still working out the bugs, the Canine HOMe Protection System even impresses his hard-to-please boss (Conrad Bain) whose security company is under attack from a rival (Jim Backus), and a member of his own team (Larry Bishop) sabotaging their product.

Valerie Bertinelli also stars as our inventor’s girlfriend, and the daughter of his hot-headed boss. While I remember the film keeping my interest as a kid, it’s target audience is limited to that demographic.

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Roxanne

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Roxanne
  • IMDb: link

Cyrano de Bergerac, the 19th Century play by Edmond Rostand, has been adapted more than two dozen times over the years for film and television (including a new version starring Peter Dinklage). By far, my favorite take on the story of the remarkable man with wit, cunning, athleticism, the heart of a poet, and an comedically large nose that keeps him from sharing his affections with the one he loves, came in the form of 1987’s Roxanne released in theaters 35 years ago.

Steve Martin stars as Charlie “C.D.” Bales, the fire chief of one of the most inept fire departments in the country. Into his life walks Roxanne (Daryl Hannah), far more than a pretty face, as a beautiful astronomy PhD student renting a home in the small town from C.D.’s god-daughter Dixie (Shelley Duvall) while mending a broken heart and searching the stars for a comet.

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The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild
  • IMDb: link

Originally conceived as a TV-series, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild becomes the sixth film in the Ice Age franchise. Despite the title, the main character of the film isn’t the one-eye adventurous weasel Buck (Simon Pegg) but instead the irresponsible possums Crash (Vincent Tong) and Eddie (Aaron Harris) who leave the rest of the Ice Age regulars and set off to prove they can make it on their own.

The pair’s journey leads back into the Lost World where a Protoceratops  (Utkarsh Ambudkar) is planning on taking over with an army of Raptors. Sticking close to Buck and his old friend Zee (Justina Machado), by far the most interesting character on-screen, Crash and Eddie cause chaos with their mindless antics while eventually learning how to help.

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Josie and the Pussycats

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Josie and the Pussycats
  • IMDb: link

“Du Jour means seat belts.”

I’m still waiting for a Du Jour spinoff. Even 20 years after its release, 2001’s adaptation of the Archie Comics series and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon is simply a delight. A satirical take on pop culture and consumerism underneath a tale of a band’s meteoric rise to the top of the pop charts, Josie and the Pussycats was well before its time carving out a cult status in the years since its lukewarm reception in theaters.

Following the plane crash of the delightful boy band Du Jour (Donald Faison, Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, and Alexander Martin), who discover something unexpected when listening to their latest mix tracks, their manipulative promoter (Alan Cumming) seeks another band to hide subliminal messages within their music and so we meet the Pussycats: Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook), Melody (Tara Reid), and Val (Rosario Dawson).

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MacGruber – A Good Day to Die

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: MacGruber – A Good Day to Die
  • IMDb: link

Originally conceived as a series of sketches for Saturday Night Live, the MacGyver-inspired spoof MacGruber eventually became a feature film in 2010 which was quickly forgotten by all but its most die-hard fans. Now MacGruber is back with a new series on Peacock. Picking up years later, MacGruber (Will Forte) has spent a decade in prison but is released for a suicide mission to exchange for the President’s kidnapped daughter which he’ll eventually get around to after stopping in to see a few familiar faces.

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