LATEST ADDITIONS

Chris Chiarella  |  Feb 05, 2007  |  0 comments
Five-Star 007
A new Bond benchmark has been set.
James Bond has saved the world time and again, but where has the appreciation gone? True, MGM Home Entertainment released those three comprehensive boxed sets a few years ago. They worked from the best possible masters available at the time and added a host of special features. But even those discs went on moratorium, relegated to big price hikes on eBay. But, now, as the culmination of two-and-a-half years of audio and video restoration by DTS, the 20 Bond films from 1962 to 2002 are available again as part of The James Bond Ultimate Edition. The four volumes include Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Living Daylights, The World Is Not Enough, Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, A View to a Kill, Licence to Kill (sic), Die Another Day, GoldenEye, Live and Let Die, From Russia with Love, For Your Eyes Only, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Tomorrow Never Dies, You Only Live Twice, Dr. No, Octopussy, and Moonraker. Working from the original camera negatives, John Lowry’s process has reduced the grain and generally removed dirt, in addition to digitally repairing scratches and other incidents of damage. The color has also been retimed under expert supervision. The goal was to remain authentic while making the films as visually appealing as possible to the modern eye. The discs include new DTS tracks, along with Dolby Digital 5.1, plus the original audio in most cases, although Spy is missing its theatrical mix.
Mike Prince  |  Feb 05, 2007  |  0 comments
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 5
Bloggers across the globe have said so much about Snakes on a Plane—even months before the film was released—except for the one thing that matters. Is the movie any good? The short answer is, no, it’s not good. Not by a long shot.
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Feb 05, 2007  |  First Published: Jan 05, 2007  |  0 comments
Video: 5
Audio: 5
Extras: 5
It was with some trepidation that I watched this movie. After all, Joel Schumacher and Akiva Goldsman did their incompetent best to ruin the franchise for anyone who can sound out the word h-a-c-k-s. I shouldn’t have worried. Christopher Nolan knows his stuff and made a movie that is the equal to if not (dare I say it) better than Tim Burton’s classic. Unlike Brian Singer’s passable rebirth/continuation of the Superman franchise, Nolan starts fresh and does as the title says, showing the beginnings of Batman.
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Feb 05, 2007  |  First Published: Jan 05, 2007  |  0 comments
Video: 5
Audio: 5
Extras: 3
Tim Burton spins a tale of love and marriage in the worlds of the barely living and the hardly dead. Using stop-motion animation, Burton creates a world that is visually stunning and unlike anything else out there (except for his other creations). The voice acting, from the likes of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Tracey Ullman, is excellent.
Adrienne Maxwell  |  Feb 05, 2007  |  First Published: Jan 05, 2007  |  0 comments
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
Many a time have I listened to friends lament that a movie isn’t as good as the book on which it’s based. I just smile and nod, thinking smugly to myself that, if these poor people would just stop reading, they’d be much happier moviegoers. Then one of these friends gave me the novel The Da Vinci Code as a gift. I knew full well that Dan Brown’s insanely popular religious-themed murder mystery would someday become a film, yet I foolishly read it anyhow. And now here I am, forced to utter the same five words I once so smugly dismissed: “Eh, the book was better.”
Adrienne Maxwell  |  Feb 05, 2007  |  First Published: Jan 05, 2007  |  0 comments
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 5
As with most Robert Altman films, A Prairie Home Companion isn’t easy to summarize. It’s an oddly ethereal little film that’s about nothing in particular and yet explores the cosmic everythings of life, love, and death. Written by Garrison Keillor, the man behind the real Prairie Home Companion radio show, the story chronicles the final performance of a radio show much like PHC, as its cast and crew struggle to say goodbye.
Mike Prince  |  Feb 05, 2007  |  First Published: Jan 05, 2007  |  0 comments
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 4
Aaron Eckhart owns the screen as tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor in Jason Reitman’s Thank You for Smoking, an acerbic and wickedly funny view of spin control in the modern age. A star-studded cast fills out this comedy, but it’s Eckhart who commands your attention as Naylor tries to soften the image of tobacco in this health-conscious day and age. Whether convincing Hollywood to embrace smoking again, raising his young son, or going up against the U.S. Senate, Eckhart keeps the film together in a delicious performance.
Tony DeCarlo  |  Feb 05, 2007  |  First Published: Jan 05, 2007  |  0 comments
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 1
Talented teenage artist Jerome (Max Minghella, son of Oscar-winning director Anthony) enrolls in a small New York City art college, and his world opens up in this bitingly original, funny, and scathing film from director Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World, Bad Santa). Set against the backdrop of a campus murderer who’s tallying up victims at a quick rate, Jerome becomes increasingly confused and angry at his overcritical classmates and his own insecurities. Worse yet, Jerome finds himself in a love triangle with fellow artist Jonah (Matt Keeslar) and the stunning model Audrey (Sophia Myles). This desperation and self-doubt lead him to consider extreme measures to win the affection and admiration of all.
Chris Chiarella  |  Feb 05, 2007  |  First Published: Jan 05, 2007  |  0 comments
Super Hero
Christopher Reeve flies again.
Perhaps never before in the history of home video has a studio crafted months of releases upon a single theme, as Warner has in 2006, “the year Superman returns.” No doubt tying into that new feature film, all manner of Super movies and TV shows have been issued on DVD, some for the first time—new seasons of Smallville, the classic Adventures of Superman, Lois & Clark, Superboy, The Animated Series, and even the cartoon adventures of the Dog of Steel, Krypto. But we can never give enough credit to Christopher Reeve and his dual role as the impossibly awkward Clark Kent and a gentlemanly savior in a red cape. Reeve’s electric screen presence was born of classical acting training, an understanding of how to fly under his own power—from his experience as a glider pilot—and a willingness to bulk up his lean frame under the tutelage of Darth Vader himself, trainer David Prowse. The later of Reeve’s four franchise films were not an ideal stage for his inspired thespian stylings, but his characterization was a high-water mark for the timeless hero, as celebrated in Warner’s new boxed set, The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection.
Mike Prince  |  Feb 05, 2007  |  First Published: Jan 05, 2007  |  0 comments
Pixar Perfect
With
Cars, Pixar proves once again that they can’t make a bad product.

Video: 5
Audio: 5
Extras: 5

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