Review(s): DVD Spenser For Hire - the Movie Collection
Warner - Wake Up!!
When are the 'people' at Warner (who I believe own distribution rights) ever going to wake up and release Spenser: For Hire the complete series? It makes no sense. Then, they throw this swish-wash at us. Sorry, I'm not buying it simply to push along the Warner executives to release the REAL Spenser! If you want my money TED, give me want I want.
Urich/Brooks are Spenser/Hawk
For me, these "made for TV" movies do not capture the spirit of the original series. Having read all the books also you can tell that it is more true to Parker's Spenser (extra time helps). However the vitality that Urich/Brooks (and Boston as a backdrop) originally brought to the series is missing (and later efforts with Joe Mantegna do nothing to capture this). "Ceremony" did the best job of recapturing the feeling, but it just had that "Return to -your favorite series-" feel. As others have said here, release the series on DVD.
Better than some say.... but the series would be nice too....
Having been a fan of the series, and the books, each in their own way, finding these movies as a box set was a rare treat. I had only seen parts of these movies during their first-run, so to me they were new. Robert Urich IS Spenser, and the book scripts suit him even better than the TV shows did. He really brings the wise-cracks to life and delivers them so well, and fast, that you want to jump back a few seconds to hear the delivery again.
Several of the reviewers mentioned that the voice-overs were no longer an element of the new movies. While I still have one of the films to watch, all of the other 3 had a good bit of voice-overs in them, so I don't really understand what they are getting at. The replacement of Susan, repeatly, doesn't seem to make much sense... though I will say that I though Barbara Williams was closer to the book version of Susan than the others. I have seen one of the new Spenser films... and while Joe Mantegna is lacking as Spenser... the HAWKS are horrible. Avery IS Hawk... end of story. Here's to the series on DVD, may it come soon....
Related DVD's Spenser For Hire - the Movie Collection
I like Robert Parker's books, but they haven't always translated well to film, which is odd because many of his books read very much like film scripts...at least to me. I've been a fan of the Spenser series of books for many years, and while I never felt the Jesse Stone series was as compelling, in print, as Spenser's, I have to say that in my opinion, this film is better than any of the Spenser films or Spenser TV series' I've seen. Tom Selleck is perfect for the role of Jesse Stone; right age, right build, and has that dry humorous Parker-like delivery down pat. The rest of the cast is universally excellent, particularly the actors playing the killers, and the film looks and sounds great. It's not hard to believe that the director Robert Harmon, is a former cinematographer. Jesse... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Robert Harmon DVD Release Date: Released the 28 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Not to be confused with Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, which aired in the mid-'80s, or the several made-for-TV movies produced during that same decade, Mike Hammer Private Eye offers all 26 episodes (totaling more than twenty hours and four double-sided discs) from the single season (1997-98) in which Mickey Spillane's pulp P.I. was revived for a syndicated series.
What all of the above have in common is Stacy Keach in the title role; and despite the many Mike Hammers (including Armand Assante, Brian Keith, Ralph Meeker, Darren McGavin, and even author Spillane himself) who preceded him, Keach makes the part his own. He was in his mid-fifties by then, not exactly light on his feet anymore, and sporting a hairpiece that does him no favors. But in Keach's hands, Hammer is... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Stacy Keach DVD Release Date: Released the 26 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Return to the Big Island for more adventure with Tom Selleck’s charmingly roguish detective hero, Thomas Magnum, courtesy of this three-disc set, which compiles the entire second season (1981-1982) of Magnum, P.I.. The 22 episodes included here (among them the two-part "Memories Are Forever") crystallize the key to the series’ success: an appealing blend of action, drama, mystery, and comedy, cemented by Selleck and his likable castmates, especially John Hillerman, who would earn a Golden Globe for his work on Magnum in ’82. Highlights of the season include Magnum’s attempt to stop an international assassin ("The Jororo Kill," with Tyne Daly), the arrival of Hemingway-esque author Mad Buck Gibson (Darren McGavin) in the episode of the same... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tom Selleck DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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