Naked Alibi (Blu-ray) <small>by Stuart Galbraith IV</small><hr /> Though always fun to watch actors Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame, and Gene Barry, Universal-International's B-level film noir crime thriller Naked Alibi (1954) is let down by a preposterous script with absurd characters and situations. Much of the story revolves around a character leading a double life, but writer Lawrence Roman, working from Gladys Atwater and J. Robert Bren's story "Cry Cooper," seem to confuse that type of character with those suffering from extreme multiple personality disorder. The plot also hinges on a highly improbable coincidence, and at times almost plays like a parody of classic noir, particularly Grahame's little monologue near the end. Police Chief Joe Conroy (Hayden) is certain humble local baker Al Willis (Barry) is responsible for th...Read the entire review »

Sesame Street: 50 Years and Counting <small>by Jesse Skeen</small><hr /> Sesame Street was one of the only things I was allowed to watch on TV in my early years, and it's no question that it helped to shape me. It was one of the first times that TV had been used to educate children on things like numbers and spelling without being either boring or silly. Its creators had noticed that children memorized TV commercials easily, so they thought the same approach could be used to make them learn things that were actually important. The resulting show has been in a format of clips, primarily focusing on Sesame Street itself with its Muppet and human inhabitants, but also interspersed with separate sketches featuring those characters and some live-action or animated segments that I always felt took place in another universe- having some educational value and a unique quality to them, but having absolutely nothing to do with the main characters or setting, and they were never co...Read the entire review »