In Match Point (DreamWorks; Movie •••½, Picture/Sound •••½, Extras: None), Woody Allen creates a Shakespearean tale of ambition, passion, and madness that can only end in tears, and he does so in a uniquely cinematic way. By usual DVD standards, the quality of the picture and sound might seem lacking.
So much fuss has been made about Brokeback Mountain (Lionsgate; Movie ••••½, Picture/Sound ••••, Extras •••), especially after it was nominated for eight Oscars (winning three), that it's not worth rehashing the details here.
With a slew of superheroes in theaters this summer - X-Men: The Last Stand, Superman Returns, My Super Ex-Girlfriend - we feel a musclebound DVD assessment is in order. Batman Begins, a benchmark title, ascended beyond this list to the pantheon of torture test discs and will be revered in a future issue.
Don't know why anyone should be surprised that Norah Jones is loosening her shirt more and more these days. After all, growing up, the ingénue liked Mötley Crüe! "My neighbor and I would go listen to Mötley Crüe all the time," she says of the boys at right. And in her concerts, she's been known to do a gritty cover of "Ride On" by the boys Down Under, AC/DC.
Here are some photos from this year's annual RAVE (Recognizing Audio and Video Excellence) award taken at the 2006 Home Entertainment Show at the Sheraton Hotel in Los Angeles.
You want a Renaissance man? Look no further than T Bone Burnett, the producer behind the soundtracks to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Walk the Line. Now, after a 14-year break, Burnett re-dons his singer/songwriter and recording-artist hat to drop a gritty new album, The True False Identity (DMZ/Columbia, also available on DualDisc).
