Blogcritics Author: Jen Johans

DVD Review: The Odd Couple - The Final Season

Jen Johans — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:14:07 EST

Sharp as ever and wonderfully remastered-- this couple and DVD makes a perfect match.
In his essay, “Portrait of the Writer as a Schizophrenic,” which kicked off the first volume of his collected plays, Neil Simon described the irritating intellectual division most writers face as both “human beings” whom he admitted were rather dull and “observers” who reap the benefits of everyone’s quirks...

Concert Review: Ben Folds, 11/11/08, at Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, AZ

Jen Johans — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:20:54 EST

"4, 3, 2, 1," Folds is letting us rock.
On Tuesday night in Tempe, the “Bitch Went Nutz,” but at least she managed to give Ben Folds back that black t-shirt he’s been pining for since “Song for the Dumped.” When word leaked that Folds would be hitting the stage at 7:45 — seventy-five minutes after the show began with an ASU Homecoming announcement...

DVD Review: Tracey Ullman's State of the Union - Complete Season One

Jen Johans — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 07:01:49 EST

By parodying a Daily Dose of Fear, Ullman forms a more perfect union built on a Daily Dose of Comedy.
In the first season of her Showtime original series, Tracey Ullman left no topic unexplored whether it was singing about the side effects of erectile dysfunction medication Bollywood-style as the Indian pharmacist Padma Perkesh to assuming the role of Dame Judi Dench being interviewed about her performance as an Alzheimer’s sufferer in Martin...

Music Review: Andrea Bocelli - Incanto: The Deluxe Edition (CD/DVD)

Jen Johans — Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:05:33 EST

Andrea Bocelli releases "A Love So Great" with his latest and greatest album to date...
While scientifically speaking I may only be one-fifth Italian, in my heart, I feel as though I’m one hundred percent Italian-American. In my earliest film-going memory that isn’t comprised of singing, animated animals, I vividly recall accompanying my Italian mother and grandmother to see Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck. And while...

DVD Review: Transsiberian

Jen Johans — Sat, 1 Nov 2008 16:49:16 EDT

All-aboard; this is definitely a train worth catching.
When we are young, one of the earliest pieces of advice we’re most often given is, “don’t talk to strangers.” Of course, an optimistic response could be that everyone is a stranger until they become your friend but obviously this would most likely be offered by folks who haven’t spent a whole lot of time in the...

Music Review: Death Defying Acts - Original Motion Picture Score

Jen Johans — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:03:38 EDT

A score of magical proportions...
After you watch Australian director Gillian Armstrong’s gorgeous period film Death Defying Acts, which surrounds an unlikely love story set in Scotland among a phony psychic con artist (Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Harry Houdini (Memento’s Guy Pearce), you’re left wanting to learn more about the legendary...

Music Review: Terrence Howard - Shine Through It

Jen Johans — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:27:51 EDT

From Iron Man to Sinatra man, actor Terrence Howard releases his debut album.
An interesting thing happened when I first sat down to listen to Oscar nominated actor Terrence Howard’s debut CD, Shine Through It. Having preferred to play it via iTunes, I accidentally listened to the disc in the reverse track order. Then when I began making notes on certain songs with my instant reactions by “track number,”...

DVD Review: Affairs of the Heart - Series One

Jen Johans — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:13:41 EDT

Dirty Sexy Money circa 1900-- Henry James Style.
Based on the seven addictive episodes packed into the Acorn Media release of Affairs of the Heart - Series One, it’s not outrageous to believe that if American born, British novelist Henry James were alive today he may have become a staff writer on Dirty Sexy Money, The Young and the Restless, or General Hospital. Although, with James in the...

Music Review: The Dave Brubeck Quartet Featuring Paul Desmond - On the Radio Live 1956-57

Jen Johans — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:07:25 EDT

Reading is not fundamental when it comes to great jazz.
Upon just hearing a few notes of his astronomically famous piece “Take Five,” one would never guess that the man designated a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, Mr. Dave Brubeck had never mastered the art of reading sheet music. Called one of the undisputed “vanguard[s] of the so-called West Coast school of...

Music Review: Rosemary Clooney - On the Air

Jen Johans — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:10:22 EDT

By �showing up day after day,� Rosemary Clooney left a legacy of remarkable recordings including this one.
As she sings in the eighteenth and final track -- "I Get a Kick Out of You" -- in this remarkable collection from Acrobat Music, Rosemary Clooney opens with the lyrics, “My story is much too sad to be told.” Little did listeners tuning into these radio broadcasts realize that when it came to that particular phrase, she may...