metroskyradio Reviews

Danger 5 (2011–2015)

Strangely Funny

[8/10 · 8 March 2012]

Australia's Danger 5 is strangely funny. The special effects are right out of The Thunder Birds and cheesy, and are meant to be. The jokes are corny, funny, and rely on a lot of sight gags. Needless to say Hitlers talking dog is a bad puppet character that is really hilarious and the episode with Nazi Dinosaurs (who were armed) had me laughing so hard I couldn't get my breath. Even things in the background are funny. The "Danger 5" are spies of International makeup. A lot of language is actual French & German so the show is subtitled and even this is funny.

Danger 5 is Thunder Birds meets Allo, Allo, with a large dose of Team America World Police, bad scripting thrown in for good measure. I watched this Australian TV import with my wife, who has no sense of humor, and even she thought the show was entertaining. I'll leave it at that !

Nacho Libre (2006)

Based On A Real Character, Fray Tormenta

[6/10 · 21 October 2006]

This movie is based on a real priest, Rev. Sergio Gutierrez Benitez. who has been in over 4,000 matches over the past 23 years. His ring name is Fray Tormenta ("Friar Storm" in Spanish)and he does wrestle under the mask in Mexico to support an orphanage. The story was on the CBS evening news and a couple of the news magazine shows several years ago. Every now and then you either see, or read something about him.

I watch movies to be entertained. If I wanted "deep thought" I'd go to a library. This is Jack Black being Jack Black. The dialog is crude, humor slapstick, and storyline so, so. But it's funny.

I wouldn't buy it for my personal collection, but it's good for an evening of rental movies at home.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

Brilliant Adaption Of The Stage Play

[24 January 2006]

This is one of the funniest films I have seen in a long time and is a film adaption of an off Broadway play. It is funny, sad, vulgar, and heartfelt. You don't know whether to laugh or cry, or do both at the same time. Metaphors abound, the songs are good, and the acting is over the top. This has the potential of becoming a cult legend. It won't replace the Rocky Horror Picture Show but I can guarantee it will gather a large following as more and more people discover this quaint movie. John Cameron Mitchell is brilliant in the lead role as Hedwig, an East German Transvesite living in a trailer park in Kansas. His/her tale is told in a series of flashbacks often accompanied by song. Listen close to the lyrics, they add to the mystique of this gem of a film. I had heard about "Hedwig" for a long time but had never seen the film. I finally got to view it on an Arabic television channel complete with Arabic subtitles while I was in Iraq. Talk about weird! Punk rock and East Germany will never be the same again! (Then again neither will Iraq....but that's a different story) I have to give it "two thumbs up".