DWD's Reviews

A history teacher's review When this first came out on PBS I started watching it and never got into the flow of it. I hated the fact that they used actors to play real people rather than using the tried and true (and fantastic) Ken Burns style. Ironically, I absolutely loved the book Liberty ! : The American Revolution by Thomas Fleming by - it is, hands down, the best single-volume comprehensive history of the American Revolution that I have found. So, I was pretty much bashing the series because it was not something else. So, here I am years later and I decided to give it a second try. I am glad that I did. Liberty! is much better than I remembered. It is not as good as the book but it the best documentary on the American Revolution I have seen. It is as thorough as one can be in the limited time that this format will allow. "The Boston Massacre" by Paul Revere As for the actor thing - this time around I really liked it. The actors are really good and th

I love this series   I teach history in a public school so using this Drive Thru History: East Meets West  in my classroom is not a viable option due to the contemporary religious references. However, if you are in a Christian school or homeschool with a Christian emphasis I can enthusiastically recommend this series. East Meets West has two 30 minute plus programs about Turkey and Asia Minor. Turkey is literally where the Middle East meets the West. In episode 1, Dave Stotts takes us to Cappadocia, a unique area with an underground city and roots in the Old Testament and in the post-Biblical era as a scene of anti-Christian persecution by both the Romans and the Muslims. Episode 2 is the stronger of the two. It covers the Emperor Constantine, the controversy that caused the creation of the Nicene Creed, the fall of Constantinople and the wonderful Hagia Sofia church turned to mosque now museum. Episode 3 is a "best of" for the first 4 volumes with a blooper reel

Oh, I am torn on this movie in so many ways... Was Garfield - The Movie a good movie? No, not really. If I never saw it again that'd be fine with me. Was it a good family movie, meaning was my 4 year-old entertained by it and was it devoid of anything overly scary or offensive? Absolutely. My daughter would love to see it again and that would be fine with me. Was the animation of Garfield good? Yes, top notch and it looked like he was really interacting with his environment, including Odie and the other cats.  Was it true to the comic strip? Only in spirit. Real fans will be irritated by the elimination and consolidation of characters. A digital Garfield talking to a real-life Odie The DVD has little to offer in the way of extras. In fact, there are no extras to speak of - no deleted scenes (although, I think it would have been difficult to delete any scenes in this skimpy 82 minute movie), no behind the scenes extras showing us how they created Garfi

More of a portrait, less of a traditional movie Monte Walsh is not a plot-driven movie so much as it is a portrait of that moment in time when the Old West was disappearing and the men who made the Old West what it was had to adjust, die or just fade away. It is beautifully shot and there is a lot of attention to detail. If one is looking for a ton of action, this is not the western you are looking for. But, if you love cowboy movies this one is a real treat. It would make the watcher wistful for those days when the horse ruled the west, except that you know that Monte Walsh would have none of that pointless sentiment. No living actor looks more like a cowboy should than Tom Selleck and I'd be thrilled if he focused on those movies for the rest of his career. I rate this movie 4 stars out of 5. This movie can be found on Amazon.com here: Monte Walsh . Reviewed on October 4, 2004.

Reasons I recommend The Rundown : 1. The Rock. He fits perfectly into this light-hearted action movie. 2. Christopher Walken has a great time doing a parody of himself throughout the movie. He's hilarious as he does his Walken-esque soliloquies for everyone except the people that might actually have gotten a clue from his ramblings and figured out that this backwoods bad guy has more than one screw loose. 3. The movie is funny. Lots of good lines and situations to go around. 4. The fight scenes - they are stylized and absolutely unrealistic but artfully done. The DVD includes deleted scenes - but does not tell the viewer why they were deleted. I always find that to be most interesting, especially when the scene looks to me like it should have stayed in. The extra interviews are pretty interesting as well. I rate this movie 4 stars out of 5. This movie can be found on Amazon.com here: The Rundown . Reviewed in 2004.

Entertaining and oddball - loved the Brad Pitt character To make it short, I'll mention what I liked: -I liked the use of commentary by Turkish and Tommy during the movie - they serve as the de facto narrators. -I liked the rapid-cut intro and the way the director used the security cameras to show us the progress of the diamond thieves during the opening credits. -I really liked the Brad Pitt character. Take full advantage of your DVD's ability to make subtitles because you'll need it with all of the accents - especially Brad Pitt's. -the dog was fun (and hungry). Dennis Farina -I liked the way all of the characters were sleazy and yet markedly different from one another. -I like the fact that the DVD includes deleted scenes with commentary. I did not like the fact that the commentary usually did not tell me why the scene was deleted. I rate this movie 4 stars out of 5. This DVD can be found on Amazon.com here: Snatch (Special Edition) DVD .

A western for grown-ups. It's not about the guns, horses or bullets. It's about friendship, sex and, ultimately, love. Movie released in theaters in 2008. Be warned right now - this movie review is mostly one giant spoiler. Here's the non-spoiler parts right up front. This is a movie that strives to look authentic. The two main characters have known each other for years and have no need for a lot of dialogue - they know each other well, they know each other's habits and their conversations are spare. Many reviewers have missed the whole point of Appaloosa . It was not about two buddies/lawmen bringing peace to a town, although that does happen (mostly) and the gun fights are quick, brutal and ugly. The movie is about what happens when such a partnership is disrupted by a woman. Look at the DVD cover art and you can see it symbolically represented - there is Renee Zellweger standing between Mortensen and Harris. ****Spoiler alert****The rest of the review is jus

Historical problems - but great acting. The movie makes some cheap, ineffective attempts to give the Joan of Arc story a bit more punch - including a "prophecy" from Merlin and the mischaracterization of the 100 Years' War as a War for France's freedom from Britain. However, there is some good acting in this movie, especially from Peter O'Toole - he brings humanity to a character that could have easily been a one-dimensional, generic bad guy. Is it a great movie? no Is it entertaining? Yes - and you get the bonus of watching a real pro like O'Toole show you how its done. I rate this movie 4 stars out of 5. This movie can be found on Amazon.com here: Joan of Arc . Reviewed on July 15, 2004.

Fantastic cast, poorly written 1979 movie with two main plot lines that barely interact If I told you I had a western based on Louis L'Amour books starring Glenn Ford, Ben Johnson, Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott with Slim Pickens and Jack Elam as supporting actors you'd think you'd found yourself a piece of cinematic gold. Well, you'd be dead wrong in the case of Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts. Sam Elliott is the eldest Sackett brother who is living in Purgatorie, a piece of God-forsaken mountainous wasteland in what must be northern New Mexico. Tom Selleck and Jeff Osterhage are two younger brothers who become cowhands and later sheriff and deputy of Santa Fe. The two plot lines interact only twice - once to hand the Ben Johnson character off from Tom Selleck to Sam Elliott (Johnson is great, as always, playing second fiddle and making every scene he's in better) and in the climactic fight scene that ends the movie. The Sam Elliott plotline is the best

As a world history teacher, I am always on the lookout for new materials that I could use in class. I did not see this 2006 movie on IMAX where the grand sweeping scenery shots would have been very effective and probably would have distracted me from the scarcity of detail. But, watching it with on a little color TV in my dining room (which would be a similar scale that the students in the back of my class would experience) the amazing pictures just did not cover up the lack of actual information. I did the math once and noted that I had about 5,000 minutes of class time to cover 5,000 years of recorded history. I keep that fact in mind when I am looking at movies that I could use in class. This movie is very beautiful and enthusiastic but just does not cut the mustard for classroom use. Instead, I recommend Greece: A Moment of Excellence in the 4 film set Time Life's Lost Civilizations . I rated this film 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  IMAX: Greece