Author Archive: Jef Burnham
Jef is a writer and educator in Chicago, Illinois. While waging war on mankind from a glass booth in the parking lot of a grocery store, Jef managed to earn a degree in Film & Video from Columbia College Chicago, and is now the Editor-in-Chief of FilmMonthly.com.
The Rose of Versailles: Part 1
Marie Antoinette, who served as the Queen of France from 1774-1792, was beheaded in 1793. This we know definitively. But with that in mind, what satisfaction can we as media viewers possibly gain from watching a fictionalized account of her life apart from gaining a passing (and potentially falsified) knowledge of history– events which could [...]
Sekirei & Sekirei: Pure Engagement
Sekirei is precisely the sort of series I categorically avoid: a fan service-heavy, harem fighter in which battles between large-breasted women almost inevitably result in their nudity. Although I’m an admitted detractor of both harem and mature-rated fighter animes, I find myself surprisingly offering a relatively unreserved recommendation of Sekirei here. While I certainly never [...]
Toriko: Part Four
If you’ve already worked your way through Toriko: Part Three, you know that Toriko’s chef pal Komatsu has at last succeeded in recreating Century Soup, and decades earlier than anyone had anticipated! Given that Century Soup represented perhaps the single rarest dish found in the Human World– one that only ever manifested naturally in the [...]
Power Rangers Samurai: Vol. 4
In these, the thirteenth through sixteenth episodes of Power Rangers Samurai (which is itself the eighteenth season in Saban’s Power Rangers franchise), we at last meet the energetic but conspicuously long-absent Antonio of the series’ title sequence. Although a close childhood friend of Red Ranger Jayden, Antonio is fundamentally not like the others. Aside from [...]
French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1928
The five films collected in this set from Flicker Alley were produced at the Films Albatros studios in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil, where the studio’s core group of artists was composed primarily of Russian émigrés, as the title suggests. Although the focus of the set is extremely specific (presenting only the work of Russian [...]
China Beach: The Complete Series
China Beach aired on ABC from 1988-1991, wowing critics and (its tragically few) dedicated viewers with a bold and emotional take on a war series. Set during the Vietnam War at the 510th Evacuation Hospital and R&R center on China Beach, the series recounts the day-to-day exploits of the US Army doctors, nurses, Red Cross [...]
Strictly Ballroom on Blu-ray
Strictly Ballroom (1992), the first entry in Baz Luhrmann’s “Red Curtain Trilogy” (followed by Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001)), is by far the most charming of the series but also, tragically, the most overlooked. As an Australian import about organized, competitive ballroom dancing (preceding by a decade the trend in television that [...]
Broken City
Broken City opens on New York City detective Billy Taggert (Mark Wahlberg) on trial for the murder of a young man whilst on duty. He claims self-defense, of course, but the public’s convinced that events transpired otherwise. Ultimately, though, Billy’s acquitted due to a lack of evidence. We learn precious little about Billy during this [...]
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season Three) on Blu-ray
There are folks out there who still don’t see the point in buying any Blu-ray of a film or series made prior to The Matrix, people for whom anything that didn’t make generous use of digital effects is simply not worthy of a full HD transfer. They fail to see the benefits that 1080p resolution [...]
A Certain Scientific Railgun
Mere months after the release of 2010’s A Certain Magical Index– the 24-episode anime adapted from Kazuma Kamachi’s light novels of the same name– animation studio J.C. Staff returned with this adaptation of Kamachi’s Index side story/companion, A Certain Scientific Railgun. Whereas Index followed Toma Kamijo and his magical friend Index, caught in the middle [...]
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