Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A hopefully not forgotten cable anthology series., June 4, 2009
This was a Showtime series back in the late 90's. It was produced by brothers Ridley and Tony Scott. The show is basically Tales From The Crypt without the in-your-face black humor and less interested in the scares and more interested in the eroticism of its stories. It's a spin off of the Tony Scott directed film of the same name starring David Bowie(who would go on to host the second season's episodes). The whole show is on the same level as that film. It's filmed in the similar smokey style, the sex is explicit and integral, and it involves the supernatural world on some level or another.
Most of the episodes are really entertaining, all only running about 25 minutes, and all are introduced by a very cheeky Terrence Stamp. Tony Scott even takes the directorial reins on the first episode of this season and the next. Some familar faces show up as well like Lena Headey(300, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles), Karen Black(Trilogy of Terror, Five Easy Pieces), Daniel Craig(what, you live under a rock? He's the new Bond!), Curtis Armstrong(Revenge of the Nerds, Risky Business), and some others. Actually, this may only be interesting to me, but this is the only time you'll ever see Curtis "Booger" Armstrong involved in a sex scene. Whether that's good or simply interesting is up for you to decide.
The transfer for this first season DVD set is pristine. It's fullframe, though. Not sure if it was filmed that way like Tales From The Crypt, but it seems to have been framed with the intention of fullframe. The sound and colors all shine. There are no really good special features to brag about. On the fourth disc you get a 20 minute featurette that goes beind the scenes of the second season and gives you a preview of it as well. There are interviews with the show's creators and producers including Ridley and Tony Scott, but nothing too deep or insightful. You get some tid bits in regard to what their intentions with this show were. It's worth checking out and it does wet your appetite for season two, which I believe was the last season this fine show had.
They better release the second season and not pull an Outer Limits, the other really good anthology show that aired on Showtime. I mean this show is only two seasons long so I would hoep that it's not a problem. We'll see. This is more like the old HBO series The Hitch Hiker then it is The Outer Limits or Tales From The Crypt. So, keep that in mind and remember this show is about dark and supernatural eroticism, so if you're offended by all the boobies and girating man-parts just skip it all together. The sexuality plays a major role in the character development and almost all the themes of every episode. CHECK IT OUT!
|
|
|
42 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A pre-review review, May 22, 2009
I'm writing about this series before the product is released because it's not that well-known. It's often confused with the 1983 film The Hunger, featuring Catherine DeNeuve, Susan Sarandon, and David Bowie. There is no connection between the two.
The Hunger is like a soft-porn Twilight Zone, with each of the 22 half-hour episodes introduced by Terence Stamp. (Season 2 features David Bowie as the host, causing more confusion with the 1983 movie.) Filmed in Montreal, the show is darkly atmospheric, dark, grim, moody, with a lot of stylish, flashy photography that sometimes overwhelms the substance. Still, there are some great stories here; the episode featuring a young Daniel Craig, ten years before he was offered the role of Bond, is one of the best.
This has been available on DVD before, but in the worst possible form. The 44 episodes of both seasons were scattered across 11 discs, which were poorly distributed and tough to find. Episodes were mixed in random order, some from Season 1 sharing a disc with shows from Season 2. One disc even had no menu! Worse yet, none of the episode titles were listed on the back of the boxes.
So far, Season sets have been available only in Europe, but this release will, if nothing else, make all 22 Season 1 episodes available in a form that lets you find the episode you want.
Since I don't have the product yet, I can't vouch for the picture or sound quality, but even if it's no improvement on the old release, simply being able to have all the shows in one set is a major upgrade.
|
|
|
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining series that explores the darker appetites of the human soul, June 16, 2009
Wow - I had no idea that this series even existed and when I first saw the title pop-up on Amazon, I thought it referred to the 1983 vampire movie starring Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie. Well, it turns out that Tony Scott who was behind the movie, got together with brother Ridley in 1997 and produced a horror anthology which was shown on Showtime.
The episodes all run about 28 mins, with an introduction and conclusion for each episode by host Terence Stamp. The episodes boast some familiar names, like Daniel Craig, Jason Scott Lee, Karen Black etc. Oh, and each episode has an explicit sex scene with lots of nudity, muted colors etc.
The stories all deal in one form or another with the darker appetites of humans, i.e. hunger for money, hunger for blood, hunger for love etc. Each story has some sort of twist which is usually revealed towards the end. I'd have to say that as a fan of the supernatural, this series was quite entertaining and addictive. Some of the plotlines worked better than others, but of the 22 episodes, I found the majority of the episodes fun, watchable and entertaining.
Here is a list of all 22 episodes contained on 4 discs:
1. "The Swords" - a young man looking for some affection is captivated by the poster of a seductive woman surrounded by swords.
2. "Menage a Trois" - Karen Black hams it up as a mysterious rich invalid who hires an attractive nurse to work for her. The nurse and the handy man about house [pre-Bond Daniel Craig] get together for some pretty heavy sex, wch seems to have a rejuvenating effect on Ms Black.
3. "Necros" - a guy is lured by an attractive woman married to an old man, despite warnings to stay away from the pair believed to be the Devil's disciples.
4. "The Secret Shih Tan" - based on a story by horror maestro Graham Masterton, Jason Scott Lee plays a successful chef who is determined to discover the secrets of Shih Tan, an ancient culinary treatise that may harbor some very dark secrets.
5. "Bridal Suite" - a pair of newlyweds seek shelter at a remote B&B, and are given the bridal suite which contains a rather mysterious and forbidding looking bridal bed.
6. "Room 17" - a struggling salesman has a sexy encounter with a woman in a TV
7. "Anais" - A married man finds himself beguiled by an attractive woman.
8. "No Radio" - A torrid and illicit affair results in a shocking outcome.
9. "But at My Back I Always Hear" - A student develops an obsession for a professor with bad consequences.
10. "Red Light" - A model flees a photo shoot, thinking that the cameras are out to steal her essence.
11. "I'm Dangerous Tonight" - a mysterious red dress casts a deadly spell on a young designer with love problems.
12. "The Sloan Men" - A woman thinks she has fallen in love with a regular Joe, but mom-in-law to be sets her right about the family she is about to marry into. Has Margot Kidder in it.
13. " A Matter of Style" - Vampires
14. "Hidebound" - A woman who had her heart broken takes a job as a night security guard.
15. "Fly-By-Night" - another vampire-themed story
16. "The River of Night's Dreaming" - an escaped con seeks shelter in a sinister mansion
17. "The Lighthouse" - a lighthouse keeper still grieving over a failed love affair holes up in a remote lighthouse, conjuring a rose and more in his despair.
18. "The Face of Helen Bournouw" - A journalist finds that three famous personalities who suffered tragedies were all linked to the same woman
19. "Plain Brown Envelope" - a journalist decides to go undercover to write about hitch-hiking, but finds the assignment may not have been wise choice.
20. "The Other Woman" - A love traingle
21. "Clarimonde" - A priest-to-be encounters visions of a woman.
22. "Footsteps" - an obese man finds a beautiful woman watching him in a restaurant.
Extras - a feature titled "The Hunger Inside" hosted by David Bowie and provides sneak peeks at Season Two.
Conclusion - I found this anthology to be in the vein of Tales from the Crypt [though perhaps not as entertaining] but definitely merits a watch, especially for fans of such shows.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
DVD ~ Giovanni Ribisi
DVD ~ Kyle Schmid
DVD ~ Christina Cox
DVD ~ Amanda Tapping
DVD ~ Anna Paquin
on 
