The Tyler Perry Collection (I Can Do Bad All By Myself/Madea's Class Reunion/Meet the Browns/Madea's Family Reunion) (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'll admit that I'm a Johnny-come-lately to the "Madea" series, finally seeing this compilation at the insistence of my teenaged niece. Creator Tyler Perry and his alter-ego, the opinionated, pistol-packing, chain-smoking (never lit, by the way) "Madea," have starred in several successful stage plays and subsequent theatrical film versions to the delight of fans, mostly African-American, nationwide.
Though the stories feature the tried-and-true clichéd characters (the belligerent teenager, the devoted wife, the straying husband, the vixens, the lotharios, etc.) and situations (infidelity, promiscuity, straying from the church, comedic funerals, obnoxious and overbearing family members), Perry's productions also introduce a bit of spirituality with each story's ending dependent upon DIVINE INTERVENTION making things right. Some of the acting performances are a little over the top, and the musical selections, though sung with gusto and relish by the gifted vocalists, are weak in the lyrics department; however, as a whole, the respective productions are entertaining and inspirational.
Perry has tapped into a market that is unconsciously ignored by Hollywood, and is having great success on both the stage and screen.
This compilation lets the viewer experience and/or revisit those money-making stage shows.

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I Can Do Bad All By Myself (The Play)When Madea (Tyler Perry) gets sick, her family comes to her aid. What they don't realize is that they're the ones who need her help. As always, Madea's cockeyed outlook on life saves the day and guarantees side-splitting laughs along the way.Madea's Class Reunion (The Play)When Madea (Tyler Perry) shows up for her 50th class reunion, you know it's going to be a whopper! Between the belly laughs and thesoulful songs are life lessons. Thanks to Madea's wisdom, the message is clear: Learn to forgive and begin with yourself.Meet the Browns (The Play)A funeral can be a time for laughter (and lessons) when the kooky Brown family gathers to bury Brown's (David Mann) 107-year-old father. It's a foot-stomping sound-stirring send-off and a great reminder--"Ain't nothin' like family, ain't nothin' like love!"Madea's Family Reunion (The Play)The fireworks begin when Madea's family gathers for her granddaughter's wedding. As usual, Madea (Tyler Perry) rules the roost, as she and her neighbor, the wacky Mr. Brown (David Mann), deliver nonstop laughs. Live, love, rejoice...it's Madea's Family Reunion!

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Red Hot Chili Peppers - Off the Map (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)I wasn't sure what to expect from a RHCP's live performance with John Frusciante back in the lineup. By far my favorite guitar player they've had, I didn't know if he could still play after his drug abuse problems in the years away from the band. Their "Californication" did little to alleviate those fears, his playing and soloing being so sparse and sort of un-practiced sounding. Don't get me wrong. "Californication" is a great album but it's much different from the chops galore "Blood Sugar Sex Magic". (And I don't mean that as a slam-BSSM is a masterwork in no small part due to Frusciante's intricate, interweaving lines throughout).
"Off the Map" put all my doubts to bed. Frusciante plays his [behind] off. Just check out "If You Have to Ask". Shredding, but he's so much more than than just a shredder. Something magical happens when his Strat, through a Wah, hits a Marshall. It's the tone for sure and then his note selection and use of space that really sets him apart from "shredders". I had read recently in a guitar magazine interview that he's trying to change his style, henceforth the new, sparse approach he's used on the last two albums. It's pretty funny to watch actually. When they play the new songs his playing shifts dramatically to the new style he's developing.
And don't let me forget Chad Smith and Flea. They are powerhouses here. Flea's gone from slapmaster (oh, he can still slap!) to improvisor and it suits him well. Chad is like a rock holding John and Flea's improvisations together.
This is a fun and inspiring dvd. The only reason I don't give it a 5 star review is because it does falter here and there. But that's what you get when your live show isn't prerecorded canned [stuff] and you take musical risks. That where the fun happens with these guys.

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Off the Map is the first concert home video since 1991 from one of rock's greatest live experiences, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Off the Map is also the band's first concert DVD--the only way to witness the funk-funk-rockmetal-rap musical orgy of one of today's most popular bands. Songs: Around The World, Give It Away, Usually Just a T-Shirt #3, Scar Tissue, Suck My Kiss, If You Have to Ask, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Otherside, Blackeyed Blonde, Pea, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Easily, What Is Soul?, Fire, Californication, Right On Time, Under The Bridge, Me And My Friends.

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Synecdoche New York (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)The question for this complex and weird film is whether writer-director Charlie Kaufman's artistic ambition will ultimately frustrate viewer patience. When I saw the film, a couple in front of me walked out halfway through. You will probably love or hate this film; reviews have been sharply divided.
Philip Seymour Hofmann stars as Caden Cotard, a theater director mired in all the midlife crises, real and imagined, of body, mind and spirit. The film begins conventionally enough, or so it seems, but there are telltale signs early-on that Kaufman is going to play with reality itself -- a cartoon on the family TV features Caden as a character, and a realtor walks a client through a house that is permanemtly on fire. Those are two ominous metaphors.
The giveway is that the name "Cotard" bears a striking resemblance to that of the French postmodernist Jean-Francois Lyotard. We shouldn't be surprised when Caden quits his career doing theater among the "blue hairs" in suburban Schenectady, New York, where his latest production was "Death of a Salesman," and with the help of a MacArthur genius grant (a cruel irony given his circumstances) moves to a cavernous warehouse in New York City and recreates his confused life through what eventually becomes a cast of hundreds of characters. Yes, life is a stage and we're the actors.
In his book The Post-Modern Condition (1979), Lyotard made (in)famous the notion of "incredulity toward meta-narrrative," a fancy way of saying that there are no truly universal or absolute meanings or truths in life, and that all meaning is a personal or social construction. This is exactly what Caden tries to do -- he creates meaning in his life through characters who portray his life. He keeps changing the name of the play, one of which is "Simulacrum" (= an insubstantial semblance of something). He keeps saying that he "finally" knows how he wants to direct the play. Indeed, the play is never finished but is instead a building project that piles floor upon floor of sets; it never ends. For Kaufman there's a very thin line between authenticity and absurdity, genuine reality and mere representation, living life and playing roles, healthy self-awareness (however painful) and oppressive self-consciousness, and between true life and certain death.
Does Caden's effort to manufacture even the barest micro-meaning make any sense? The last line of the movie offers a glimmer of hope. Maybe.

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From Charlie Kaufman, comes a visual and philosophic adventure, Synechdoche, New York. As he did with his groundbreaking scripts for Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kaufman twists and subverts form and language as he delves into the mind of a man who, obsessed with his own mortality, sets out to construct a massive artistic enterprise that could give some meaning to his life. Theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is mounting a new play. His life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theater in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele (Catherine Keener) has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. His therapist, Madeleine Gravis (Hope Davis), is better at plugging her best-seller than she is at counseling him. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel (Samantha Morton) has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his autonomic functions, one by one. Worried about the transience of his life, he leaves his home behind. He gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in New York City, hoping to create a work of brutal honesty. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. The years rapidly fold into each other, and Caden buries himself deeper into his masterpiece, but the textured tangle of real and theatrical relationships blurs the line between the world of the play and that of Caden's own deteriorating reality.

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