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Showing posts with the label DVD

JACK IRISH (Set #1) DVD

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This will be of interest to fans of brooding mysteries Guy Pearce (the villain in Iron Man 3 ) plays Jack Irish in this Australian mystery show. Jack Irish is a former prosperous defense lawyer who lost his wife when a past client came to his office to argue about how his case was defended in court. Jack Irish tells his wife to leave the office and head for the car and he will meet her after he and his client talk a bit. Instead, the client follows his wife out to the car, shoots and kills her and then kills himself right in front of Irish. Irish's life goes into a tailspin. Now,he spends his time woodworking, drinking,doing a bit of bill collecting and gambling. But, sometimes the right case comes along and he gets motivated to really care about something that matters again... I was honestly not impressed by Guy Pearce in Iron Man 3 , but I thought he hit all of the right notes in his portrayal of Jack Irish. His new (and seedy) friends are there to help as well and t

Enemy Mine DVD

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This movie swings for the fence with every pitch... Directed by Wolfgang Petersen   Released in 1985 This movie swings for the fence with every pitch. If you are not a baseball fan, that is saying that a batter swings for the fence means that he only goes for home runs and does not try to just get on base.   And, for you baseball fans out there, you know that the long ball hitter that swings for the fence with every pitch strikes out an awful lot. But, the fans love him anyway because when he gets hold of a good one it's a home run! This movie is a lot like a long ball hitter - the director tries to go for a home run on so many levels that you end up alternating between shaking your head at the cheesiness of it all and wiping at a tear at the way some of the scenes work so perfectly. The premise is that two enemy fighter pilots in a bitter intergalactic war shoot each other down over some horrible planet that will barely support life. One is human. One is a d

Windtalkers DVD

Not what I'd hoped...  Directed by John Woo. Released in 2002. With the title Windtalkers you'd think it would be centered on the Windtalkers, those Navajo codetalkers in the Pacific Theater of World War II. I'd purposely ignored this movie until I had the time to watch it since I was interested in the topic and have a passing interest in the Navajo culture, having visited the Four Corners area several times and having read a bit about them. Anyway, I was hoping for a movie that focused on the Windtalkers themselves - why they fought for a society that had conquered them and now scorned them, what their motivations were, how their culture dealt with the separation from the Navajo lands, the death and destruction of the war (briefly touched on) and so on. That would have been much more interesting and important. Instead, we get a movie that should be called Messed Up In the Head Windtalker Babysitter - a movie about the white guy who minds the Navajo

The Incident DVD

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I am not a fan of Matthau but he is undeniably strong in this one. Produced in 1990 by Qintex Entertainment The Incident is an Emmy-winning made for TV movie about a fictional POW camp for German soldiers in World War II. They are being held in Camp Bremen, in Bremen, Colorado (the movie was actually filmed in Colorado Springs) as thousands of Axis soldiers were throughout the war. The local town doctor is also the POW camp doctor. He is murdered at the camp and a German sergeant looks to be guilty. A civilian trial is ordered due to political considerations and the local ne'er-do-well attorney played by Walter Matthau is appointed by the judge (played by Harry Morgan of M*A*S*H and Dragnet fame) to defend the German suspect. Matthau is strong with a wide variety of emotions displayed - not overdone, not underdone - just right. He has several strong scenes with his character's granddaughter played by Ariana Richards (best known as the blond girl from

The Petty Story & The Wrestler DVD

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  Not a great movie, but a must for Richard Petty and early NASCAR fans (from a Petty fan from way back) Just so you know, I've given this movie 4 stars - not because it is a great movie. It is not, unless you are a die hard Petty fan. But, it is a valuable piece of NASCAR history - a little gem that I picked up in the super-cheap DVD section of a local store. It is a snapshot of the beginnings of the modern heyday of stock car racing. Released in 1974 and full of footage from the early days of NASCAR, the production values in this one are not great, which is a mixed blessing. The old footage does not stick out from the rest of the film because the film itself is pretty grainy and has questionable sound at times. Richard Petty plays himself and he comes off as a fairly wooden actor, which would be a pretty unfair assessment to make if you are not familiar with Richard's personality. He is slow-talking (careful with his words), casual, straight-backed and

Beautiful Boy DVD

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DVD released in 2011 by Anchor Bay entertainment. Maria Bello and Michael Sheen star as a decent, upper middle class married couple who are slowly but surely growing apart. Their only child is off to college and they are much more interested in their careers than in each other. They do not fight, but they do not care enough to stop the drift. But, tragedy strikes in the form of their son who goes on a shooting rampage at his college and then committing suicide. And then we get to the story itself: What happens to those families who are left behind by these spree shooters? Of course, the denial, the shock and the horror at what their son has done overwhelms the couple. Soon enough, the national media follows them everywhere and camps on their doorstep hoping for a quote or a bit of telling video. Bello and Sheen both shine as they take the viewers through the amazing array of emotions and behaviors that this shell-shocked couple experience. There are no fakey momen

Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation DVD

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The cover and the title make you think you're in for more than this movie delivers As fans of Starship Troopers know, the very name Starship Troopers implies a galaxy-sweeping epic with lots of violence, gore, heroism, humor, drama and tons of big-budget special effects. This one is limited to one location, his lots of gore but little in the humor, drama and big-budget special effects department. One has to wonder at the thought processes in Hollywood. Starship Troopers was a big success. Sure, it was expensive, but it is also a regular staple on cable TV and it continues to sell well. One would think that a Starship Troopers 2 would have been in the works for a long time - perhaps a final push to the bug home system. Instead, according to the director's commentary track, the special effects director of the original Starship Troopers came up with this simple, low-budget plot that he wanted to direct. Somehow sold it to the powers-that-be at Sony and th

Indianapolis 500: The 70's A decade Of Legends (Collectors Edition) DVD

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A must for Indy 500 fans Janet Guthrie Part of a series of DVDs produced by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this collection reviews all of the races from 1970-1979, including A.J. Foyt's famed and unprecedented fourth win. The collection features original TV & radio commentary, sound and video and lots of interviews with the drivers. Some of the interviews are from the 1970s and some are from nowadays looking back. Indianapolis 500: (The 70's A decade Of Legends) Collectors Edition is more than mindless promotion of the race - the lowlights (1973) are exposed along with the controversy associated with the arrival of Janet Guthrie, the first female participant in the 500. Changes with racing technology is highlighted throughout. DVD features include collecting all of the bits and pieces of interviews with several drivers and some owners and adding a few bonus bits. Rick Mears and Roger Penske are especially strong interviews. Well done. 5 stars ou

Indianapolis 500: (The 80's) A decade for The Ages DVD

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A must for Indy 500 fans Part of a series of DVDs produced by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this collection reviews all of the races from 1980-1989. The collection features original TV & radio commentary, sound and video and lots of interviews with the drivers and owners. Some of the interviews are from the 1980s and some are from nowadays looking back. 1988 Indy 500: all Penske front row (Mears, Sullivan, Big Al) Indianapolis 500: (The 80's) A decade for The Ages is more than mindless promotion of the race - the lowlights (1981 and the ridiculous court case that determined the winner) are exposed as well. Changes with racing technology is highlighted throughout. DVD features include collecting all of the bits and pieces of interviews with several drivers and some owners and adding a few bonus bits. Rick Mears, Roger Penske and Tom Sneva are especially strong interviews. Another nice feature is the inclusion of an uninterrupted highlight reel o

Indianapolis 500 (The 90's) Collector's Edition DVD

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"There's nothing as mighty as this in the world." - Nigel Mansell, F1 champion, Indy 500 driver Part of a series of DVDs produced by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis 500 (The 90's) Collector's Edition reviews all of the races from 1990-1999. The collection features original TV & radio commentary, sound and video and lots of interviews with the drivers. Some of the interviews are from the 1990s and some are from nowadays looking back. The video is more than mindless promotion of the race - the lowlights (poor officiating in several races, for example) are exposed along with the controversy associated with the infamous CART-IRL split. The DVD features include collecting all of the bits and pieces of interviews with several individual drivers and some owners that were in the feature and showing them in a longer format and adding a few bonus bits. The interviews highlighting many of the family connections are especially strong, a

1421: The Year China Discovered America DVD

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Surprisingly well-balanced approach to a controversial theory  Zheng He (1371-1433) I fully expected this DVD to be a whole-hearted film adaptation of the book without any criticism of the central thesis. If you are not aware of the thesis, British naval officer Gavin Menzies proposes that the gigantic Chinese "Star Fleet" not only explored the Indian Ocean and the coasts of Africa, India and Arabia, but also went around South Africa, into the Atlantic and eventually landed in the Caribbean, North America and South America. Menzies asserts that they went around Tierra Del Fuego, entered the Pacific and eventually returned to China, thus being the first the circumnavigate the globe. The DVD is very sketchy about the latter half of this trip (The Pacific Ocean leg). The first hour does a strong job of explaining why you may have never heard of Zheng He or his fleet. It also tells about the voyages that historians are confident that Zheng He complet

Vexille (anime) DVD

Pretty good sci-fi movie I am not much of an anime fan, but I do like a good sci-fi show and Vexille was pretty good. The animation of everything that was non-human was fantastic (in my newbie-to-anime eyes). The metallic structures were perfect. The sunsets, explosions, splatters, etc. were wonderfully done. The human faces (and to some extent, the body movements) were not as good - but that is understandable. We humans spend so much time actively looking at faces and body language as compared to cars, sunsets and explosions, that the art cannot stand up to that type of detail. Anyway, the story is pretty strong, although you need to pay attention. Japan has sealed itself off from the world because the rest of the world has decided that cyborg technology is a danger to the human race. Japan has embraced this technology, however. The story is interesting, but sometimes they over-narrate and sometimes there's not enough narration. I got a bit confused when due to the

Ancient Trade Routes of the Arab World DVD

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This made for school DVD highlights an important and oft-ignored facet of history Any teacher of world history knows that some subjects have plenty of supplemental resources available. For example, the Ancient Romans and Greeks have literally thousands of DVDs, books, workbooks, programs, units, games and activities available as supplements, including whole weeks of programming on the History Channel. Equally influential eras, such as the Arab Trade Routes are often ignored or have scant materials available even though these trade routes were the source of medieval Islam's strength, wealth and intellectual flowering. The DVD Ancient Trade Routes of the Arab World  does address this topic, but only in a 3-star (ok, but not great) way. The DVD features three short films (12 minutes or so for a total of 38 minutes) about three trading hubs - Zanzibar in East Africa, Dhofar in the Arabian Peninsula and Ghadames in the Sahara. The movies show the modern-day versions

Sentinels of Silence

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Chichen Itza A short, breathtaking look at Mexico's Indian ruins Filmed almost entirely from a helicopter, Sentinels of Silence is a double Academy Award winning documentary is narrated by Orson Welles. This movie is shown in by the Mexican government in embassies around the world and serves as a fantastic 18 minute introduction to the Ancient Indian Civilizations of Mexico. Orson Welles, dramatic photography and an equally dramatic soundtrack combine to make this a memorable movie. A must-see and must-have movie for all fans of Mayan and Aztec history. 5 stars out of 5. Reviewed on September 21, 2008.

Passion Play DVD

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Starring Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox and Bill Murray. Movie originally released in 2010. Passion Play tries very hard to be a BIG movie - one with lots of big themes (such as love conquering all, redemption and love causing a person to grow and become more than they were before) but it just falls short. It goes through all of the motions but not enough things click to make the movie work. Mitch Glazer wrote and directed this movie and he enlisted his high school friend Mickey Rourke and his wife (Kelly Lynch) to be in the movie. Bill Murray stars as a mafia boss named Happy. Murray puts a spark into nearly every scene and might have the most interesting character in the entire movie - the mob boss with a love for art and beauty. Rourke's character (Nick Pool) is a down and our jazz player that has been sleeping with Happy's wife so Happy orders Rourke to be taken out to the desert and executed. As Pool awaits a shot to the forehead the mobsters are killed by Indians who

Secrets of Ancient Empires: The First Armies DVD

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Limited range, no real secrets, despite the title. Although it purports to tell "secrets" of the first armies, most of the world is left out of Secrets of Ancient Empires: The First Armies and there really are no secrets told in this documentary DVD. The wars featured are: A) The Trojan War B) The Punic Wars C) The Persian Wars Yeah - that's right, they're out of timeline order and only Greece, Rome, Carthage and Persia are represented. There are no secrets revealed in this DVD (don't tell anyone but the Greeks are using a fake horse to sneak into Troy!) and there is no real study into how these large armies evolved, the economic mobilization involved or anything of the sort, despite the claims of the text on the back of the DVD that it "tells the powerful story of the origins of organized warfare" and "how sophisticated tactics were introduced." I'm also bothered by the fact that most of the world is not included. N

The Story of 1 (DVD) narrated by Terry Jones

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It's math, it's history, it's a lot of fun Released in 2006. I watched The Story of 1 when it premiered on my local PBS affiliate and I thought it was a lot of fun and full of loads and loads of interesting history. As a world history teacher, I am always on the lookout for something that can tell our story with a twist. This one does it quite nicely. Terry Jones in a still from the DVD The documentary is narrated by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. It tells the story of man's use of the number one (and other numbers, but the focus always returns to the number 1) throughout time with a humorous twist. It explores early uses of math, why mankind had to develop math, why the Roman Numerals were inferior to our current system and continues on to the modern use of binary numbers. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted it for my history class. It will be great as a different sort of review of the history that we have studied thus far. I rate this DVD 5 st

Alexander - Director's Cut DVD

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YIKES! (NOTE: this is a review of the 1st re-cutting of this movie. Stone has since re-cut it into "The Final Cut.") Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) 20 minutes into this movie I was thinking that it had real potential. We get to see the ugly details of Alexander's childhood. We get an understanding of his need to conquer, the need to achieve more than his father and his fascination for the non-Greek world (thanks to his mother). An hour into the movie I was confused and disappointed. Confused because of the incessant flashbacks. I knew what was going only because I teach this stuff for a living. How could the average movie-goer possibly understand why Alexander invaded the Persian Empire based on the feeble information supplied by Stone? Stone has an oblique reference to Phillip's murder, but the average movie-viewer does not know even know who Alexander the Great is, let alone that his father was murdered(he shows it in detail in a flashback

Black Cadillac (DVD)

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Pretty good small budget movie While not the best movie I've ever seen, this movie does what it sets out to do - draw the viewer in for some thriller action. 2 friends and a little brother have travelled to Wisconsin for an evening of booze and girls at a backwoods bar in the winter. After a barroom brawl a 1950s Cadillac menaces them and eventually persues them - but our 3 protagonists have no idea why. Randy Quaid as the local yokel good ol' boy sheriff is the only actor you're likely to recognize but, in my mind, young, pez-consuming Josh Hammond steals the show The guys in the cadillac I am unwilling to be a spoilersport, so I won't go into great details, but you can imagine the tension that develops with car chases in the winter on twisty country roads, a hitchhiking sheriff in the backseat spouting off platitudes and asking pointed questions and a general feeling that things are spinning out of control make the movie work. The DVD commentary is intere

Wizards (DVD) by Ralph Bakshi

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My opinion is all over the place with this movie Another reviewer described  Wizards accurately when he said it was "a weird, horrible, funny, enthralling cartoon movie". That is dead on. The animation is both bad and wonderful. The plot is epic, wonderful and poorly thought out and petty. Ralph Bakshi So, here are some random thoughts:  The animation: I LOVE the fact that Bakshi used a variety of animation styles and techniques. It made the movie visually interesting and some of the animation is great enough to rival Disney animation at its very best. Sometimes, however, the animation is of such poor quality that it distracts from the action. At times, the animation is worse than SeaLab 2021 on Adult Swim - and they intentionally make the animation bad! Money became an issue as the movie was being animated and it is, at times, quite obvious that they cut corners in some segments. The characters and plot: Avatar putting the moves on Elinore W