A Most Pleasant Surprise.

Posted : 1 week, 2 days ago on 27 June 2008 01:04 (A review of Pink Floyd - The Making of The Dark Side Of The Moon [2003])

A friend of mine works for Eagle Rock Entertainment and gave this to me on a whim. I disregarded it as some opportunistic 3rd party capitolization on the Pink Floyd names.

Turns out it is f*cking awesome!!

Each song is broken down and commented on by all four band members, peers, and industry leaders. It goes into the history of the songs with amazing rare footage and even mid-interview song demonstrations by Dave, Rog, and Rick!

I can't say enough good things about this DVD. It's so well produced and interesting and you don't even have to be a PF fan to appreciate it. But if you are, I think this is one of the most important pieces you can have in your Pink Floyd collection.


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Catherine Deneuve Collection review

Posted : 1 week, 2 days ago on 27 June 2008 12:44 (A review of Catherine Deneuve Collection)

this box is simply one of the things most beautiful that I ever saw.
and of course, these movies are great! younger catherine is really very very cute *0*

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review

Posted : 1 week, 2 days ago on 26 June 2008 10:16 (A review of Universal Soldier (Special Edition))

Van Damme makes basically two types of action films. The science fiction/action movies and tournament fighting movies. All of the movies in each type are almost identical except for very small changes. That doesn't make the films bad really, but they do get repetitive.

Universal Soldier is one of his better science fiction movies. Van Damme plays a soldier who was killed by his commanding officer while trying to keep a civilian being killed during the Vietnam war. The commanding officer was also killed. A couple of decades later the two are brought back to be universal soldiers, reanimated corpses that are used in the place of live troops. These UniSols are basically indestructible except for a tendency to overheat. Apparently, whatever method being used to reanimate them also causes their bodies to run at high above normal body temperatures. The other main flaw is that sometimes they start remembering their past, mostly what led up to their death.

During the course of one of their missions, the UniSols attract the attention of a reporter. Refusing to let the story go, she decides to follow them back to their base. This leads to her and the camera man being captured since the scientists behind the project doesn't want the story to get out. After having a flashback to the Vietnam war, Damme's character decides to disobey orders to save the reporter. This sets up the chase that lasts for the rest of the movie.

The movie is about what you would expect. The action/fight scenes are pretty well done. There is no surprises from Damme's acting. Lundgren was amusing as the bad guy. I thought that Ally Walker did a really good job with the role she was given. I enjoyed this movie, but if you don't like Damme's other movies like Cyborg or Timecop you probably won't like this movie. If you did enjoy those movies, you may find this one a bit repetitive as its basically the same movie.

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eye-poppingly gorgeous

Posted : 1 week, 6 days ago on 23 June 2008 10:37 (A review of Curse of the Golden Flower)

Love triangles, political intrigue, murder, coups, battles big and small, Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower" has it all-- maybe too much, actually.

If you've seen Zhang Yimou's other films in the genre, "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" then you know what to expect. Stunning photography, sets, and costumes, a plot full of twists and turns, crosses and double-crosses, and, of course, a bit of kung fu thrown in for good measure.

"Curse of the Golden Flower" is by far the prettiest of his films. Every scene inside the Forbidden City is an explosion of gorgeous color. Every character is decked out from head to toe in intricate costumes of silk and gold.

There are less action scenes than in "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers", but the final action sequence is bigger than anything that appeared in the first two, and easily rivals the beautiful chaos of the Spartan/Persian battles in "300".

But don't let all these visual delights distract you from the subtitles. The story is quite complex, with literally every named character in the film having his or her own independent backstory and agenda, each of them key to understanding the events that preceded and follow.

This is a dense film, and I'm guessing a second viewing would be required by many to either understand the whole of complex story or the fully appreciate the visual artistry, or both.

But this density is also a liability. So many characters must split the 2 hour run time that it's hard for any one of them to be fully fleshed out.

Strongly recommended.

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Eric Clapton - Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 review

Posted : 1 week, 6 days ago on 22 June 2008 07:09 (A review of Eric Clapton - Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007)

This DVD is proving hard to review. There's no way I can do justice to it in a couple of paragraphs.

Eric Clapton invited a varied bunch of performers to the day long festival. The only common thread is that all of them play blues guitar in some form. The result is that there's is so much good music packed into the four hours that it's not even funny. The varied bunch of performers are all on top form. The sound quality is amazing, it feels like a studio recording.

It's hard to pick highlights since the whole DVD feels like a highlights package. I'll pick a couple of surprises instead. The first was Susan Tedeschi. I haven't heard much from her but I knew her as a good singer in the vein of Bonnie Raitt. Surprise, Surprise! She's an awesome blues guitar player too. The second was John Mayer. All I remembered about him before listening to set here was some vague pop music from the early part of this decade. Again, Surprise! His subsequent album was heavily blues influenced and he's a damn fine blues guitarist too. Good for him, I'll be checking out his album soon, especially the song 'Gravity'.

Final word - As expected, the set played by Eric Clapton and all his collaborators was amazing. However, even though the title say's this is an Eric Clapton record, it's not, really.

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Awesome first season

Posted : 2 weeks ago on 22 June 2008 12:54 (A review of House, M.D. - Season One)

We're dropped right into the world of Gregory House without any introduction. Every episode is unique and interesting as House and his team try to figure out their case. Along the way, we learn more about the characters and the world of House gradually expands. Watching this on DVD is a great as you can watch a bunch of episodes in one go. Hugh Laurie is brilliant, as usual. I've been a fan of his for long (think Blackadder and Jeeves & Wooster among other things) and it's interesting to see him in a drama for the first time.

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Careless

Posted : 2 weeks ago on 21 June 2008 06:55 (A review of Careless)

"Careless" has quite a ridiculous story, but overall, it is well done, with a good cast. I like Rachel Blanchard and Colin Hanks paired together in this movie, and this is the best thing I have seen Colin Hanks in so far this year (Untraceable and My Mom's New Boyfriend were not smart choices for him!!). "Careless" is also the best of the movies I have watched so far that are releasing on Tuesday...and though it is quite disgusting for Colin Hanks' character to be carrying around a severed finger for most of the movie, it is also quite funny, in an off-the-wall kind of way. And I really liked Tony Shalhoub as Colin Hanks' father - a father who isn't the best at parenting, but who does try at times.

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Unstable Fables - 3 Pigs and a Baby

Posted : 2 weeks, 1 day ago on 21 June 2008 04:22 (A review of Unstable Fables - 3 Pigs and a Baby)

I think I expected too much from this film. I thought it would be more fun, more entertaining, than it was. It's a family movie, but I don't know about letting my child see this, as there are definitely much, much better family films - much better animated films - out there. 3 Pigs and a Baby has a very small cast playing a few different roles...except for the main four actors (Brad Garrett, John Cryer, Steve Zahn, and Jesse McCartney). The animation is just so-so, the story is mediocre, really...I could see young children enjoying it, possibly, but anyone over the age of 5 is likely going to get bored with this one really quick. Definitely a let-down, because it looks like it would be better than it is, but in the end, it's only really middle-of-the-road, at best.

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10,000 B.C.

Posted : 2 weeks, 1 day ago on 21 June 2008 04:17 (A review of 10,000 B.C.)

So far, I am unimpressed with the movie releases for June 24. I shut Spiderwick Chronicles off before finishing it, and I feel like doing the same for this one. Currently 45 minutes into "10,000 B.C.", and I am very disappointed with it. This is from the director of "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow", and while I haven't seen "Independence Day", I can say that I enjoyed "The Day After Tomorrow" much, much more. Maybe I am just not in the mood for this movie, but I am not impressed with the special effects, the acting, or the story, and I don't feel like sitting through the rest of the movie to see if it gets any better!

Thankfully, I didn't have to pay to rent this, otherwise, I would want my money back! I can only hope that the rest of the movies I brought home are better than the ones I have watched so far!!

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The Spiderwick Chronicles

Posted : 2 weeks, 3 days ago on 19 June 2008 09:38 (A review of The Spiderwick Chronicles [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC))

I started watching this with a completely open mind, only to be severely disappointed, bored, and annoyed. Freddie Highmore is annoying enough as it is, but when there are TWO of him, it's really awful. The story for this movie is, to me, completely stupid/utterly ridiculous, and I was so fed up with this movie that I shut the DVD off maybe half an hour into it. The girl who plays the older sister is also annoying, though that might be because she has to act against two characters played by Freddie Highmore. I won't let my daughter watch this either, as it is too dark for small children, from what I saw of it, and I was so unimpressed by the bit I did see that I will likely never bother to finish watching it....or any possible future sequels, if they are planned.

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