Beaches
Directed by Garry Marshall
By Travis Mackenzie Hoover

This is the quintessential ’80s chick flick with the capacity to reduce women and men to tears for entirely different reasons. Bette Midler is a loud and brassy singer from the Bronx; Barbara Hershey is the repressed rich girl in need of a rescue. They meet as children under the Atlantic City boardwalk, become fast friends and have a frantically eventful friendship as Bette rises and falls as a celebrity and Barbara falls and rises as a lawyer. Having dreaded seeing this film for years (with the combination of Midler and sitcom king Garry Marshall boding very ill), I was surprised to find myself in the critical middle: it’s neither as bad as its male detractors would claim nor as good as its female fan base would insist. In its favour is a very, very eventful script crammed full of stuff, including a theatre director (John Heard) to fight over, a bullying father, a cheating husband, a baby and a killer disease. Working against it is the genre’s formless tendency to never work towards much of a theme and pile on crises like explosions in a Stallone movie. But though I’d never watch it twice, I didn’t quite resent it, and given Marshall’s track record, you could do worse. Much worse. Extras include a Marshall commentary full of obvious observations and condescending humour; an interesting interview with Mayim Bialik, who assayed the role of Midler’s child self; the video for “Wind Beneath My Wings” that’s sure to thrill readers of this magazine; Barbara Hershey’s screen test, which plays better than some scenes in the movie; a tiny clip of Midler from AFI’s “100 Years... 100 Songs”; a 1988 gag reel with some crew member’s snarky (and entertaining) editorialising; and the trailer. (Buena Vista)
Spaceballs: Collector’s Edition - Dir. by Mel Brooks
If ever a film deserved to be satirised, it was Star Wars. Luckily it was in 1987 by comic genius Mel Brooks, and it was done with the right amount of stupidity and intelligence. Also taking the piss out of Star Trek, The Wizard of Oz, Alien and Planet of the Apes, Spaceballs is a non-stop barrel of laughs right from the opening two-minute sequence of a ridiculously elongated spaceship. ...Read More
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Astro Boy: the Complete Series
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Dynasty: The Complete First Season
Enduring Love - Dir. by Roger Michell
Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law Volume One
House of Bamboo - Dir. by Samuel Fuller
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In Living Color: Season 3
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Six Feet Under: The Complete Third Season
Space Ghost Coast To Coast: Volume Three
Spanglish - Dir. by James L. Brooks
Star Trek: First Contact Special Collector’s Edition - Dir. by Jonathan Frakes
That 70s Show: Season Two
The Amityville Horror - Dir. by Andrew Douglas
The Bob Newhart Show The Complete Third Season
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The Interpreter - Dir. by Sydney Pollack
The Newsroom: Seasons One and Two
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The Street with No Name - Dir. by William Keighley
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Trailer Park Boys: The Complete Fourth Season
Undertow - Dir. by David Gordon Green
Viva La Bam: The Complete 2nd and 3rd Seasons
Volcano High - Dir. by Kim Tae-Kyun
White Noise - Dir. by Geoffrey Sax
With Six You Get Eggroll - Dir. by Howard Morris
Thin Lizzy - Are You Ready
Shot in 1981 for German TV series Rockpalast, Are You Ready doesn't showcase the late Phil Lynott and company at their peak, but this DVD still rocks. The popular notion about Ireland's Thin Lizzy is that the band declined after the 1978 landmark double album, Live and Dangerous... Full Review
Toro y Moi - Causers of This
Last year's most exhilarating subgenre alternated between the ridiculous names of "chillwave" and "glo-fi." Chaz Bundick, or Toro y Moi, may be the last of the bunch to have his say, but he has two reasons to be excited: Causers of This is the first of two albums he's prepared for 2010 and he... Full Review
Dallas and Travis Good
The centre of Blue Rodeo's universe is a non-descript building on the Danforth in Toronto, housing their management company Starfish Entertainment and their renowned Woodshed Recording Studio. If the band have any roommates at the Woodshed, then it's the Sadies.... Read More
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