It's not a deep drama and it won't make you ask you any tough questions of yourself, but Major League is pure entertainment from beginning to end. As such, it's my all-time favorite movie. It's easy to invest in the story (a Cleveland team made up of spare parts tries to overcome their owner's plot to move the franchise) even if it's been dated by the Indians' '90s success. The comedy doesn't pull any punches but still stays pretty tasteful, and I still find it laugh-out-loud funny even after 30+ viewings. The comedy is equal parts outstanding writing by David S. Ward and brilliant characterizations by the actors. James Gammon is dead-on as grizzled manager Lou Brown and Tom Berenger is actually sympathetic as journeyman catcher Jake Taylor. Dennis Haysbert and Corbin Bernsen give great performances, and Charlie Sheen is inimitable as Wild Thing Vaughn. I think any baseball fan will enjoy this movie, but fans of good comedy will probably like it, too.

The DVD has no special features (what else do you expect from Paramount?), but the picture and sound are good.

Movie: 6/5
DVD: 4/5
Overall: 5/5

This DVD represents everything the format can offer in a music video. It has all of Al's videos, with stereo surround and 5.1 tracks, plus some extra clips from Al's Saturday morning cartoon show and his 1981 TV debut on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show. The videos are presented in random order; you can really see that Al's 80's videos hold up quite well in comparison to his 90's videos. Here's the track listing:

1. Fat
2. Amish Paradise
3. It's All About the Pentiums
4. Smells Like Nirvana

5. You Don't Love Me Anymore
6. Bedrock Anthem
7. Gump
8. Jurassic Park
9. Headline News
10. Dare to Be Stupid *my favorite*
11. Eat It
12. Like a Surgeon
13. UHF
14. Money For Nothing / Beverly Hillbillies
15. One More Minute
16. I Lost On Jeopardy
17. This Is the Life
18. Living With a Hernia
19. Spy Hard
20. Ricky
21. Christmas at Ground Zero
22. I Love Rocky Road
23. Bob
24. The Saga Begins

As you can see, no Weird Al fan should be without this DVD. I'd rate it 6 stars if I could.

Road House is the sort of movie that critics reflexively dismiss as being a cheesy, corny, poorly written, moronic action movie, but I see it differently. It is kind of cheesy, with Dalton being a famous traveling bouncer with only one name, but it shines in every other area. The dialogue is good enough, the story is involving, Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliot are truly great actors, there's a nice amount of gratuitous female nudity, and the fight scenes are some of the best I've ever seen. This is the ultimate guy movie. And as far as Joel Silver's work goes, I think Road House is better than the Matrix sequels. I've seen it at least 10 times and it hasn't gotten old.

Mr. Murder is the first mediocre Dean Koontz novel that I've read. His writing style here is as tight and focused as ever, but I think the plot is sorely lacking. The Network's role in producing Stillwater's evil twin is given minimal buildup, and is summed up very tidily at the end. I thought it just fell flat. The characters are the same stock ones that Koontz tends to use, and I usually don't have a problem with them, but they feel especially strained when involved in this weak story. Koontz could have done better; in fact, he _has_ done better with a conspiracy novel: Dark Rivers of the Heart is much richer than Mr. Murder.

Unfortunately this album was ignored by radio, died a quick death, and wound up being the band's last release. But what an album it turned out to be! Every cut is outstanding. The melodies are catchy, Tim Rushlow's vocals are as good as they ever were, and most importantly, the production is excellent. The band added Jeff Huskins on fiddle and piano and brought in studio musicians Dan Dugmore and Sonny Garrish on steel guitar. Porter Howell's guitars shine on songs like "Loud and Proud," "Long Way Down," "Bad For Us," and "Living in a Bullseye." Those guitars provide a solid base on the tracks featuring Huskins on fiddle: "Ain't No Time to Be Afraid," "The Call," "Your Mama Won't Let Me," "If I Don't Get Enough of You," and "Yesterday's Gone Forever," the last of which features Dwayne O'Brien taking a nice turn on lead vocals. Huskins' fiddling gives those songs a sharp, distinct sound, and his piano playing holds up against that of the departed Brady Seals, as evidenced on "All in the Line of Love." It's a shame that this was his only album with the band.

Maybe it's just as well that Little Texas called it quits after this album, because this is their magnum opus. On that hand, I don't know if they could have topped it, but on the other hand, who knew they could put together an album like this?

5 / 5

Best Of albums can never quite satisfy everybody. A disc from a band like Van Halen is going to have to omit some songs; there just isn't room for all of them. That being said, where are "Hot for Teacher" and "Jamie's Cryin'"? It's just criminal to leave those off in favor of the two new Dave songs, "Me Wise Magic" and "Can't Get This Stuff No More." I think the new cuts are pretty good, and it's nice to hear Dave back with the band (even if only for those songs), but they're not anywhere close to being the Best of Van Halen. A double-disc set probably would have been the best approach, followed by MWM and CGTSNM on a TRUE Van Halen III with Dave on lead vocals.

Some have complained about the omission of "You Really Got Me," "Ice Cream Man," etc. I think the logic behind that move is that this is the best of _Van Halen_, so no covers are included. I think I can live with that.

I think the disc is solid overall. It's a decent retrospective, and it served as my introduction to the band, but if you really want to get into the band, check out any/all of their albums, starting with their masterpiece, Van Halen I.

After the straightforward country-rock of their first two albums (Eagles and Desperado), the band added Don Felder as a third guitarist and decided to rock out a little bit. The results are magnificent. Plenty of ballads are included, too; it's not that it's an all-out hard rock album. Going song by song:

1) Already Gone (lead vocals: Glenn Frey) -- their classic guitar rocker.
2) You Never Cry Like a Lover (lv: Don Henley) -- a solid ballad.
3) Midnight Flyer (lv: Randy Meisner) -- a rolling bluegrass number featuring Bernie Leadon's banjo.
4) My Man (lv: Leadon) -- a tribute to Gram Parsons and Leadon's best contribution to the band.
5) On the Border (lv: Henley) -- a cool, slow burner.
6) James Dean (lv: Frey) -- the hardest rocking song on the album, with great solos (and good lyrics).
7) Ol' 55 (lv: Frey / Henley) -- one of their best ballads. Al Perkins adds some beautiful steel guitar work.
8) Is It True? (lv: Meisner) -- a nice mid-tempo ballad. Frey's slide guitar work is pretty good here.
9) Good Day in Hell (lv: Frey / Henley) -- a good mid-tempo guitar cruncher. Frey and Henley sing in harmony throughout.
10) The Best of My Love (lv: Henley) -- one of their most relaxed songs. Leadon plays some great steel guitar.

So there you have it: my second favorite Eagles album, behind Desperado. Hotel California is #3.

This movie is beautiful almost beyond words. Forgive my hyperbole, but it's like it's a religious experience cloaked in the simple disguise of a "baseball movie," and I really think it transcends that category. Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones are at their best, Phil Alden Robinson's writing is great, and James Horner's score is just plain super-duper. The DVD features an hour-long documentary that exhaustively details the making of the film, and the picture and sound are good. The only way you can go wrong with this disc is if you're dead inside.

Movie: 6/5
DVD: 5/5

It may not be a sexy pick, but this is my favorite VH album. Every song is a classic. The clarity, precision, and originality of Eddie Van Halen's guitars outshine anything else I've heard, except maybe for Hendrix. David Lee Roth's vocals are perfect, whether he's singing or wailing. Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony form a tight rhythm section, and Anthony's backing vocals complement Dave perfectly. This album is a testament to how cosmically rare it is for a hard rock band to create a totally original sound--it just doesn't happen very often. The 80's saw a thousand imitators, but nobody could match Van Halen and nobody came anywhere close to matching this album.

Album: 5/5
Remastering: 5/5 (loud and crystal clear)

I just love this album. It still hasn't gotten old for me. I like the melodies and the earnest lyrics, but the clear production puts it over the top (and I mean that in the good sense). There really isn't a bad song on here; Voodoo Lady is probably the "least good." Going track by track . . .

1) The Dolphin's Cry (a good hard rocker--the bridge is outstanding)
2) The Distance (I love the synth harpsichord solo)
3) Sparkle (nice mid-tempo beat with good guitars and great lyrics)
4) Run to the Water (a great power ballad)
5) Sun (a great up-tempo rocker--it could have been on Throwing Copper)
6) Voodoo Lady (weird lyrics, but a cool melody)
7) Where Fishes Go (positive lyrics; I can see how the earnestness can turn some people off, but I think it's great)
8) Face and Ghost (good lyrics, good slide guitar, and some cool experimentation with a vocal filter)
9) Feel the Quiet River Rage (solid lyrics with a good arrangement)
10) Meltdown (the best arrangement on the album -- the guitars really shine)
11) They Stood Up For Love (this song has the best lyrics on the album: "We spend all of our lives / going out of our minds / looking back to our birth / forward to our demise," and I love the organ featured here)
12) We Walk in the Dream (a solid rocker)
13) Dance With You (another great ballad; it's much more mellow than Run to the Water)

The one drawback of talking about music is that you can't really describe to someone else what it sounds like. They have to hear it for themselves. I hope my review is descriptive enough for you to check out this album, because it's just an amazing piece of work. It's alt rock at its best.