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Reviews: 'Spider-Man,' 'Sports Night'DVD review: 'Spider-Man'
(Entertainment Weekly) -- When ''Spider-Man'' first hit theaters, it was such a relief to see that director Sam Raimi hadn't Screwed It Up -- i.e., messed too much with the Marvel Comics concept of a young schmo, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), granted superpowers after a spider bite -- that it was easy to overlook the crucial flaw of the film. Which is that Raimi's ''Spider-Man'' is about exactly what Maguire's opening speech says it is: ''a girl'' -- Kirsten Dunst's squeezably soft Mary Jane Watson. And as a pop love story, the movie's peachy-keen. As a battle with evil as personified by Willem Dafoe's hammy Green Goblin, however, it's an F/X-overloaded noisefest. The two-disc DVD is full of goodies that turn out to be mediocrities: Marvel editor Stan Lee yakking about his own marvelousness; interviews with other Spidey-comic artists and writers who give short shrift to Steve Ditko, the artist who gave Spider-Man his distinctive look; a gag reel with no gags; unilluminating screen tests by Maguire and the scene-stealing J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson); the video of Sum 41's soundtrack irrelevance ''What We're All About.'' With great promises come great responsibilities: This ''special edition'' just doesn't swing. Grade: B- -- Ken Tucker DVD review: 'Sports Night: The Complete Series'It was creator Aaron Sorkin's masterpiece. A behind-the-scenes gander at a pressure cooker of a workplace. A beloved boss with a delicate medical condition. Biting social and political commentary that tackled the religious right, the Confederate flag, and the legalization of marijuana. ''The West Wing''? Think again. ''Sports Night'' was unusual in many ways. First off, it was about a sports show, but was not geared toward sports fans. It also bucked sitcom convention by providing just as much dramatic, serialized tension as it did funnies. Josh Charles, Felicity Huffman, and "Six Feet Under"'s Peter Krause headlined a magnificent cast made even more magnificent by Robert Guillaume, who delivers powerful performances both before and after his real-life stroke. Yes, all the characters are Sorkinized to a degree (everybody is quirky and has repetitive conversations in rat-a-tat rhythms while walking briskly through office corridors), but back in 1998 that approach was fresh, fun, and different. Looking back at the two seasons -- and seeing some of the play-it-safe comedies on the air today -- it still is. Grade: A- -- Dalton Ross
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