chrisklecker

A Man Called Sarge like The Big Bus was an obscure comedy that tried to sell on the success of Airplane and Top Secret. What we got was a funny movie but a lot of the time the jokes were stretched so thin you struggled to actually laugh. Sure you would chuckle at the few visual gags or the sexual gags, hell even the whole Duck/Dump sequence is actually quite hilarious, but in the end A Man Called Sarge is just a silly movie. Yet ironically it still works. The actors kept the movie moving. The pace is a constant velocity and Gary Kroger does a good job in keeping the audience interested in what's happening on the screen. Other characters are just embarrassing like The French Poodle or Major Browning. Marc Singer's Von Kraut is hilarious and his accent just adds to the character.

The movie doesn't fail on the toilet humor which in some cases is just plain horrible, but the opening sequence certainly gives you a solid indication in the direction of the movie. That is, if you are in 10 minutes and can't stand what you are watching, turn it off. The movie doesn't get any better, but on the other hand, it doesn't get any worse either.

Highlights: The train sequence is good. The dump/duck sequence is classic. The sequences in the base camp are gold and Von Kraut being told about a loss at a dinner party is probably the funniest part in the movie.

If one were to approach Babylon 5 The Lost Tales without watching the original series or even any of the movies, they wouldn't be lost in the plot, but as a seasoned and loyal fan of this series I found The Lost Tales to be a monumental waste of time and almost close to an embarrassment.

The opening sequence throws the butterflies in your stomach into a dizzying whirl. The characters fly onto the screen in what I felt to be the most inspired title sequence since Season 5 (funny how each season's title sequence gets better) and some of the greatest music from Christopher Franke since the series' finale. However, once we finally dock with the Babylon 5 station and gawk at the tremendous size of the docking bay we are suddenly confined to quarters. In the original series there was a sense of size to the station. Here the station feels like a two bedroom apartment. We were confronted with a chorus of fascinating characters. Here the characters are few and they are all cardboard cutouts. What was once a thriving station seemed as if we are now watching everything after hours.

Then comes the dialogue. JMS again proves his writing abilities are a cut above the rest however I found both plot lines to be rather dull and soulless. The first episode about demonic possession contain an interesting philosophy, but was soon crushed by Lockley's solution to the riddle that was presented to her and the priest. A simpleton plot found within a simpleton station. This rather minimalist approach to B5 was further annunciated by the second plot line. Are the actors so old as to remove any energy from the series? One has to admit that a lot of life from B5 was ejected the minute Season 5 started, yet, after watching The Lost Tales, Season 5 seems about as energetic as the rest of the series.

Granted JMS gave nods to all characters not present and even gave a rather nice nod to Biggs and Kastulas, to go on with a series about characters when you have only two main characters from the show seems like a rather pointless venture, especially when The Lost Tales moves laterally. The plot lines don't even bring up unanswered questions from the original series except for perhaps Prince Vitari, the late emperor's son from Season 4.

The Lost Tales is a grand idea in need of a few Red Bulls. Perhaps Copeland should just start a whole new series rather than straight to DVD movies. Introduce a new cast. Come up with a 5 year arc, with a few of the unresolved arcs from the last series. However rather than start 10 years later, why not start 15 years? That is, concentrate on David Sheridan as the main character, even though he is supposed to be 15 at the time. It seems from the original series, resolutions start to happen at around this time. David's 16th birthday is arriving, Centauri is about to be liberated, the IA could be shown as struggling and about to be crushed by the Drak. The telepath war about to take full force. Complete isolation from Earth due to the Drak Plague as a nod to the unfinished Crusade. So much material can be gone through and so much more could be accomplished. At this junction, I would be more excited to hear about this sort of series than the next installment of Lost Tales.