Cynical Cinema

Don’t get me wrong.  Cheers was always great.  And season 10 contains some of the classic episodes the world has come to know and love.  Like the one where Sam, Cliff, Norm and Fraser go on a road trip to find their inner manliness, or the one where Norm and Cliff ruin Fraser’s therapy group.  Every actor is totally comfortable in their role, by this time they can do it in their sleep, and on occasion it seems as though they are.  But the indications that Cheers was nearing it’s end were there throughout the season.  And mainly, that’s as a result of the theme throughout the season where Sam and Rebecca decide to conceive a baby.

Not that the lame idea of the formerly promiscuous bartender and the uptight gold-digging whiner trying to have a child together can being down the entire series.  It can’t.  Cheers was just too good, and Norm and Cliff and Woody and Fraser and Carla and even Paul and Lilith made the series great regardless of the subject.  But where, in an earlier season, Sam’s romance with Diane was clearly going to be a fleeting one and was easily dismissed as Sam went back to his old ways, this time we feel as though it’s one of those will-they-or-won’t-they plots that could go on forever.  Like that Rachel and Ross thing that made Friends suck so very much.  Cheers is still hilarious, still way better than Friends, but Season Ten was the beginning of the end.  It comes out today, September 2nd, from Paramount Home Entertainment.

There is an absolutely phenomenal box set being released on August 26th. Woody Allen has been one of the greatest American directors for many years, and while he is mostly remembered for his all-time classics, Manhattan and Annie Hall, every one of his films is worth watching for one reason or another. With his latest, Vicky Cristina Barcelona in theatres, Alliance Films decided to release Woody Allen: The Collection today, August 26th. Every movie in this box is good, some are great. And while six of the discs have been readily available before this on DVD, the seventh is the bonus.

Wild Man Blues, a 1997 documentary film about Woody Allen, has been a hard-to-find item for some time. Not a film about Allen the film maker, but a film about Woody Allen the jazz musician. Allen, when not making films, plays jazz clarinet at a New York club. This film, directed by Barbara Kopple, follows Allen around as he takes the jazz ensemble on the road. The documentary was made right around the time when the public image of Allen was at it’s lowest. He had just left Mia Farrow for their stepdaughter Soon Yi Previn, and people were beginning to look on him as some kind of sexual predator. This film was accused of apple-polishing by some critics upon it’s release. As though it were some kind of brown-nosing attempt by Kopple to repair Allen’s tarnished image, and the movie was quickly forgotten. But in watching it now, it is merely a window into the man’s private life, his relationship with Soon-Yi, which really does appear to be pretty normal, and his relationship with his parents, which is eye-opening.

The other films in the set are all second-rate Woody Allen films, which would be first-rate films by almost anyone else. Mighty Aphrodite, the film for which Mira Sorvino won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, is a pretty fluffy film that works best as a reminder that Mira Sorvino CAN actually act. Bullets Over Broadway is a brilliantly funny comedy about gangsterism and the roaring twenties, featuring terrific performances by Chazz Palminteri and Dianne Wiest. Everyone Says I Love You is a musical comedy that is absolutely jammed with star power, and as such is one of the only Julia Roberts movies, AND one of the only Drew Barrymore movies, that I actually enjoy. Deconstructing Harry is a very dark comedy that is equally star-studded, with Robin Williams, Demi Moore, Billy Crystal and dozens of others in perhaps Woody Allen’s most under-rated movie. Celebrity is also jammed with big names, but isn’t one of Allen’s best efforts. And Scoop is likely the low point of the box set, with Scarlett Johanssen turning in a surprisingly mediocre performance and Hugh Jackman being a little more irritating than necessary. Not a horrible movie, but weak by Woody Allen standards.

Woody Allen: The Collection is a must for fans of his work, with Wild Man Blues being the icing on the cake. Get this box set, then pick up Annie Hall, Manhattan and Crimes And Misdemeanors, and you have all the Woody Allen you’ll ever need.

Cheers is one of the very few shows from the 80s that actually stands the test of time. And season nine is out on DVD today, courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment. It’s in the midst of the Kirsty Alley years, back before she was a gigantic Jenny Craig spokesperson. As a child watching this show, I could not understand for the life of me why Sam Malone always wanted to sleep with Rebecca Howe. It confused me. I thought, this guy sleeps with every hot woman who walks into the bar! Why does he want the one who is fairly attractive at best? Not only that but she’s high-maintenance, she’s irritating, she’s kind of dumb, and she is a little mean. My mom explained that it was because he wanted the one woman he couldn’t have. At the time, I didn’t understand. I thought, the less effort the better, no? I understand better now, having succumbed to the same sort of mind set once or twice, but I still think it would be a lot better to just find a really hot girl with a great mind, like that one he meets every year on Valentine’s Day at that cabin in the woods, and go with it. Kirstey Alley seems like a lot of effort for very little return. But, that’s just me.

Season nine features some of the classic episodes of the series, like the one where Norm’s wife takes a job at the restaurant upstairs. In fact, the best part about season nine is the introduction of Keene Curtis, who plays John Allen Hill, the owner of Melville’s restaurant. His introduction leads to several great episodes where the ownership of the bathrooms in the back of Cheers come into question, and the feud between him and Sam reaches epic proportions. While Woody Harrelson and Kelsey Grammar are possibly the most successful actors to emerge from Cheers, it’s John Ratzenberger and George Wendt who kept the show outstanding. The ninth season was one of the best, and if you’re going to pick up one season on DVD, this is a good place to start.