A few months ago, a product manager and engineer from LG visited Grayscale Studio to demonstrate the company's new LG60 line of LCD TVs. They were most proud of the effort they had put into the grayscale controls, which let a trained technician calibrate this critical aspect of a TV's performance.
While LCD displays may dominate that video wall at your local Best Circuit Shack these days, don’t dismiss the benefits of plasmas. No company has put more R&D into plasma development than Panasonic, and it’s paid off. People may disagree about who makes the best plasma sets, but no one will dispute that Panasonic is in the thick of the action. When it comes to the breadth of its product range, Panasonic is the champ.
Back in the days when CRT front projectors roamed the earth, any serious home theater required a separate surround processor and amplifier. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon to find a Tri-Amplisauri from Parasound, Proceed, and others covering those three all-important front channels. Of course, technology has advanced significantly in the past decade. These days, unless you have some very special needs, you can’t go wrong with today’s powerful and reasonably priced one-piece receivers. Many have more amplified channels than Hillary Clinton has pant suits. Rotel makes a number of A/V receivers. I even reviewed one for UltimateAVmag.com a few years ago. But the separates I reviewed here are not simply a case of cutting the baby in half. This here is a new species.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/babymama.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Kate (Tina Fey) is a single and successful 37-year-old businesswoman whose biological clock is ticking. After numerous attempts at in vitro fertilization, the doctor finally tells her she has a one-in-a-million chance of getting pregnant. Determined to have a baby to call her own, she decides to enlist the help of a surrogate mother and hires Angie (Amy Poehler), a blue-collar girl from South Philly, who gives Kate much more than she bargained for.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/vegas.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>New Yorkers Jack (Ashton Kutcher) and Joy (Cameron Diaz) independently decide to head to Vegas for a weekend to drown their sorrows for different reasons— he was fired from his job, and she was recently dumped by her fianc. After a wild night of partying, the two strangers wake up and discover that, in their drunken bliss, they got married. Neither of them is too happy about their impaired decision, and they agree on an annulment— that is, until Jack wins a $3 million dollar jackpot with Joy's quarter, prompting an all-out war for the money.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/indiana.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is trying to outrace a sinister yet beautiful Russian agent (Cate Blanchett) to find the coveted Crystal Skull of Akator, an eerie object of fascination with hidden powers. Teaming up with his ex-squeeze Marion (Karen Allen) and her rebel son Mutt (Shia LeBeouf), the three must first find an ex-colleague of Indy's who knows the secrets of the mysterious artifact.
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 4.25/5
Extras: 3/5 Takeru vows to return to the moon. Will he meet with destiny-or disaster? Find out in the final episode of the FREEDOM saga. Mankind's fate now lies in a lunar colony no one believed existed. But will the man on moon take kindly to the people on earth?
Video: 4.25/5
Audio: 3.75/5
Extras: 0/5 Based on leading scholarly accounts and written by Bodrov and Arif Aliyev, "Mongol" delves into the dramatic and harrowing early yars of the ruler who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader.
Video: 2.75/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: 0/5 "Otis" has everything he needs for the prom: the corsage, the convertible, the cool baby-blue tux (not to mention the fully equipped torture chamber in his basement). He even has the girl - a pretty blonde he's named Kim - who is dying to be his date. Literally.