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Audio Video News
Harman Kardon? Check. Harman Newsweek?!
SV Staff  |  Aug 03, 2010
"He started a business selling FM radios in the 1950s" . . . and now he's running Newsweek magazine! Yes, Sidney Harman, whose 92nd birthday is tomorrow, has bought the ailing publication because, as he quipped to The New York Times,...
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Elvis Blu-ray Collection (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Aug 03, 2010

Five years before his untimely death in 1977, Elvis was followed by a film crew during a 15-city tour of the United States. The footage was pieced together into a documentary by Robert Abel and Pierra Adidge and includes over 25 musical numbers with montage sequences from Presley's early career.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
James and the Giant Peach (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Aug 03, 2010
A young boys life is turned upside down when his parents pass away and he's sent to live as a virtual slave with his two witch-like aunts. One evening he risks life and limb in order to save a spider and in the process gains possession of some magic crocodile tongues from a mysterious man. When he spills them in the garden a humongous magical peach grows on a dead tree that turns out to be his ticket to freedom.

Inspired by Roald Dahl's children's book and brought to the screen by producer Tim Burton and director Henry Selick, James and the Giant Peach was a box office bomb but has found a cult-like following on home video. I had caught portions of the movie over the years but this was my first time watching it in full and I'm not that impressed. The stop motion animation is good, but slow pacing and dreary visuals didn't impress me.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Breakfast Club (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Aug 03, 2010
What happens when you take a jock (Emilio Estevez), a stoner (Judd Nelson), a geek (Anthony Michael hall), a prom queen (Molly Righwald), and a psychotic teenage girl (Ally Sheedy) and place them in detention for nine hours on a Saturday? Inquiring minds want to know.

John Hughes capture the teen mind, dialog, and spirit unlike any other writer/director in my lifetime. As a product of the 1980s, I can watch any of his films from the era and it's like reliving my youth. This film delves into the philosophical realm of existentialism and although each kid is part of a different clique, they each face the same struggles in school, at home, and in life and after a long day of detention end up becoming friends.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Road to Perdition (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Aug 03, 2010
As the right hand man to mob boss Joe Rooney (Paul Newman), Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) struggles with balancing his family life and the guilt he carries with his career choice. Unbeknownst to Sullivan, his son Tyler Hoechlin) stows away on a business trip and witnesses a shootout that eventually leads to the death of his sibling and mother. Now father and son must go on the run and in the process form a unique bond.

Director Sam Mendes adaptation of Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Raynar's graphic novel features beautiful cinematography but the story lacks heart. It's hard to root for Hanks' flawed character given his past and the scenes he shares with his onscreen son aren't very compelling.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Heroes - Season Four (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Aug 03, 2010
The theme of the fourth and final season of Heroes is "Redemption." Our surviving Heroes mourn the passing of fallen friends and face a dangerous new foe (Robert Knepper), a carnival operator with a plan to gather those with special abilities and seek retribution against humanity.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. The first season of Heroes was a critical and commercial success with an interesting premise, entertaining storylines, and compelling and likable characters. Unfortunately, the show lost its mojo along with its audience over the following three years. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, but I hung in there until the end hoping to recapture the magic of its first season, but sadly it never came. The writers didn't seem to have a long-term strategy they were following and went off on too many tangents. The fourth season showed some promise, but once again the show focused too much attention on Claire (Hayden Panettiere) and her relationship with her father (Jack Coleman) at the expense of the more interesting characters such as Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson-Lee).

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Clash of the Titans - 2010 (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Aug 03, 2010

As a war rages between men and kings and kings and god, the battle amongst the gods is the one that could ultimately destroy the world. Hope rests with Perseus (Sam Worthington), son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), who was raised as a man and sets off on a hazardous journey deep into forbidden worlds to avenge the death of his family and defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus and unleash hell on earth.

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Premiere Design
Stewart Projection Screens
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 03, 2010

Photo courtesy Surround Sounds, Perth, Australia

If you've been reading about home theater for any length of time, you've probably heard of Stewart Filmscreen, a family-owned company that represents the lion's share of the consumer and commercial projection-screen market. Its product range is vast, so I'll focus on three high-end home-oriented offerings—CineCurve, Director's Choice 2.0, and StarGlas.

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Other Tech
Sound Matters: High Definition Audio For High Defintion Video
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 03, 2010
With all the fuss about the great images on HDTVs, particularly from Blu-ray, it’s easy to forget that sound is half the experience—maybe even more. Blu-ray offers more than just great video. By making use of its generous data-storage capacity and new ways to encode audio, it offers an audio experience that’s a significant step beyond the digital movie sound formats we’ve lived with. In fact, it’s arguably equivalent to the sound the engineers and filmmakers heard during the mastering session.
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Curtain Call
Long Live the King
Michael J. Nelson  |  Aug 03, 2010
There’s much to admire about Larry King, not the least of which is his longevity—he began broadcasting his show via Pony Express during the Buchanan administration. There’s also the fact that he has achieved so much despite his strong resemblance to a large, partially shaved rodent. He’s also to be commended for his ability to shift rapidly between subjects (almost as quickly as he shifts between wives), both in his TV show (“Tonight, I’ll be talking about radical Islam with author and former member of the Dutch Parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I’ll then be cooking a delicious and healthful egg-white omelet with funnyman Carrot Top”) and in his late, lamented column for USA Today (“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Nothing beats a nice, cold glass of pineapple juice... Went to see Legs Diamond on Broadway, accompanied by former Match Game host Gene Rayburn: Man, Peter Allen looks great in a tux!”). And so, Larry, I dedicate this wide-ranging column to you.
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