Mail Call - Best of Season Two
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B
True to
his United States Marines roots, R. Lee Ermey is back for a second season of Mail Call, proving that nothing repeats
like success. The actor forever immortalized
in Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 masterpiece Full
Metal Jacket as an uncompromising drill sergeant, Ermey has been appearing
in feature films since Francis Coppola’s equally brilliant Apocalypse Now has more facts, dark humor, and necessarily rough
language to disperse to the viewer.
Now that
the set-up has sunk in, the show is still impressive, but the overall surprise
is a bit dimmed. These programs are an
excellent continuation of how good the first set was. One highlight is seeing exclusive footage of
new somewhat-top secret unmanned airplanes (if they were totally so, they would
not be on this show), and the editing does not give you the usual lull of being
able to tell where the commercials may have been.
This DVD
includes the following installments by subject:
1)
Civil
War Rifles to Hedgechoppers
2)
U.S. Marine Training Tools to Dazzle
Paint
3)
Trebuchets
to Boomerangs
4)
LAVs
to The Military Salute
5)
The
Deuce-and-a Half to Scottish Kilts
6)
Medieval
Weapons to Ejection Seats
7)
Unmanned
Aircraft to The Fairbairn-Sykes Commando Knife
Trebuchets
are often confused with or misidentified as catapults. We also learn the history of the Bowie knife,
however brief, that I did not get from the A&E ALAMO DVD set (reviewed
elsewhere on this site). The new ADS
2000 military diving apparatus will remind James Bond fans of the JIM diving
equipment in 1981’s For Your Eyes Only,
though the similarities between the two are not acknowledged in that (or any)
installment. The Ejection Seats piece is
very interesting as well, with any Bondian reference unnecessary. The archival footage is as rich as before,
making this another great collection.
The full
screen, color images are from analog videotape with the usual varying image
quality due to the documentary nature of the series. The transfer is a tad sharper than the
previous DVD. The sound is Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo, but it is simple and clear stereo, but still no surround
activity. Extras on this first DVD are
few, but include a brief biography of Ermey and a hilarious piece called
“Gunny’s Deal of the Day” that shows off a favorite Jeep while spoofing used
car salesman. Does he know he is using
the infamous tagline for the Delos Corporation in Michael Crichton’s Westworld (1973) at the end?
Altogether,
this runs about 3 hours and is never dull.
Though it continues to be the biggest hit in the short life of The
History Channel, it has yet to hit its stride.
If it stays this good and these DVDs keep getting issued, it will.
- Nicholas Sheffo
