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Reviews
Night Gallery: A Fear of Spiders/Junior/Marmalade Wine/The Academy (1971)
Great episode from a classic show.
I remember this show from when I was a child. At the time, all I remembered was being scared to death. :) As an adult, I'm more impressed with the great storytelling and artful direction. I once had arachnophobia and therefore this episode stuck out in my mind from childhood. But even when I saw it back then, I had an appreciation for the relationship dynamics between the female and male lead. And that's really the magic of Night Gallery - being able to scare you but still having a solid story to do it with. I wish that today's TV shows and movies would take a hint from Night Gallery. It's OK to have CGI (which wasn't available back when Night Gallery was done) but don't get so caught up in it that the story suffers (or is nonexistent). Thank goodness for hulu.com. Maybe some television executive will revive this series at some time in the future or at least learn from its craftsmanship. You can't beat a good story.
Nacho Libre (2006)
Entertainment Weekly Was Wrong
I read the review in this week's Entertainment Weekly (who gave it a D+) and I almost allowed that to influence me not to see the movie. But I also saw in the same issue where their movie reviewer said he didn't get "Napoleon Dynamite." So I saw the movie this weekend and I'm glad I did because I can't remember when I've laughed so much or so hard at a movie. If you liked the humor of "Napoleon Dynamite" and enjoy your slapstick mixed in with more subtle humor (which I do), you'll love this movie. Jack Black does a great job of balancing the slapstick humor with developing his character as the sweet underdog you can't help but cheer for. The movie is great for the whole family to see and has a good message. It's also refreshing to see a movie where people can be religious and still laugh at themselves.