Audio Video News

DVD: The Battle of Shaker Heights—Buena Vista
Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 1
In The Battle of Shaker Heights, the second Project Greenlight movie, Shia LaBeouf plays Kelly Ernswiler, a 17-year-old kid who re-enacts WWII battle scenes in his spare time. At a battle re-enactment, he meets Bart Bowland. The two become fast friends, but things get messy when Kelly falls for Tabby, Bart's older, engaged sister. After watching the making-of on Project Greenlight, you expect an intensity level that's lacking in the final, edited version. Where is this "wonderful" script that everyone keeps talking about? Oh, that's right: It ended up on the cutting-room floor.

Mel Tormé, George Shearing—A Vintage Year
Mel Tormé, Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass—Velvet & Brass
(SACDs, Concord)
Having seen Mel Tormé perform at Carnegie Hall in the last few years of his life, I can vouch for his vocal virtuosity, incredible energy, infectious charm, and ability to toss off a Buddy Rich drum solo. The first of these two hybrid SACD/CD releases captures him with pianist George Shearing live at the Paul Masson Mountain Winery in 1988. On the second, a studio set recorded in 1995, he pairs off with a big band, just a year before the stroke that would end his career.

DVD: The Great Gatsby—Paramount
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 1
A great book does not necessarily make a great movie, as anyone who ever seen Demi Moore's version of The Scarlet Letter will certainly attest to. There have been three big-screen adaptations of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby since 1926; if any of them had the most potential, it was the 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. The script was written by Francis Ford Coppola (fresh off The Godfather), and the studio spared no expense on the budget required to reproduce the lavish Roaring 20s Long Island lifestyle. Unfortunately, this version of The Great Gatsby is pretentious, boring, and utterly lifeless—in other words, it's a lot like the elite socialites who make up most of the cast of characters.

Sol Republic, a Los Angeles-based maker of lifestyle music products, has updated its best-selling wireless earbuds to improve performance across the board.

While other manufacturers are set on making the biggest and best displays, Sharp has taken a look at an oft-overlooked segment of society. At the G8 Hokkaido environmental summit, Sharp unveiled an LCD television that most folks would have walked...

SōLIS, a new audio brand “created for people who value iconic styling and exceptional sound quality in equal measure,” has introduced two reasonably priced compact stereo systems featuring a pair of speakers and a hybrid tube/solid-state amplifier that supports wireless streaming.

Not all directors are as enthusiastic about Hollywood's 3D push as James Cameron of Avatar fame. Some are against 3D while others are ambivalent about it.