Reviews by Jennifer

• March 17, 2014
• At Home, Drama

Dying to get your mitts on some overblown swingin’ Sixties melodrama?  Look no further than Two Weeks In Another Town whose trailer alone promises Hollywood glamour, emotional mayhem, self destruction, fast cars, booze, babes, and bad judgment all set against an exotic Roman backdrop.  The energy is so frenetic...

• March 16, 2014
• At Home, Comedy, Television

Television can be a pretty bleak landscape these days, but if I look at it from a kid’s perspective, I actually feel kind of sick. When I was a little, you didn’t need cable to find age appropriate programming. With just 3-5 channels and a good pair of rabbit...

• March 16, 2014
• At Home, Comedy, Television

If you’ve seen Season One of Family Ties, you’ll be happy to pick up where you left off with the Keaton family. Season Two finds Alex taking speed supplied by Mallory (OMG!), alcoholic Uncle Ned (Tom Hanks) applying for a job at Steven’s station, and Jennifer taking stock of...

• March 16, 2014
• At Home, Comedy, Television

It seemed to me that Seasons 1 and 2 of Family Ties approached perfection, and yet, I love Season 3 even more. When Meredith Baxter Birney’s real-life pregnancy is written to the script, we find the Keatons anticipating a surprise addition to the family. I hadn’t remembered this happening...

• March 16, 2014
• At Home, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance

I was thirteen when Ghost came out, and I was swiftly caught up in the romance of the movie. I listened to “Unchained Melody” about five thousand times, and watched every cast interview and every making-of featurette I could find. I didn’t even see the movie until it was...

• March 6, 2014
• At Home, Comedy, Drama, Family, Television

By now, most of us are well-versed in the premise of the ABC Family drama, The Secret Life of the American Teenager.  Regardless of whether you’ve actually seen the show, you’ve undoubtedly heard that it chronicles the high school experience of Ashley Juergens (Shailene Woodley), who becomes pregnant during...

• February 25, 2014
• At Home, Drama

After four decades of watching and collecting Rocky movies, it seems crazy that the entire six film series will fit in one slender case, right in your hand. Where are the four DVDs and one VHS copy that make up your hodgepodge collection? And what’s that? Rocky V? You...

• February 22, 2014
• Books

The first thing I did when I got my review copy of Stephen Tropiano’s Saturday Night Live FAQ was to squeal in delight and wave the book around excitedly. The second thing I did was to spill tea on it. Not a lot of tea, just a drop on...

• February 22, 2014
• Action, Animation, At Home, Television

I’ve always been puzzled about the intended audience of comic book cartoon shows. I mean, they’re animated and usually air when and where kids can find them, but they’re often dark, plot heavy, and somewhat sophisticated. I remember watching Batman: The Animated Series as a high schooler in the...

• February 22, 2014
• Animation, At Home

Technically they’re spectacular, but entertainment-wise they could be stronger. I think of myself as someone who really likes animation, so I’m a bit baffled as to why I’m not more charmed by Pixar’s offerings. Apart from Toy Story 2, which made me cry, I’ve never taken to their movies,...

• February 22, 2014
• Action, Adventure, At Home, Drama

Batman Begins is, obviously, the story of how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman.  As a child he falls into a well full of bats.  Haunted by the experience, Bruce freaks out over some shadowy images at the opera, and asks his parents if they can leave.  They oblige, and as...

• February 21, 2014
• Animation, At Home, Comedy, Television

The Simpsons have become such a ubiquitous part of pop culture that it’s easy to forget that new episodes are still being made, deliberately, with the same edgy humor and attention to detail as ever. Instead it’s easier to think of them as a real family, frozen in time,...