Audio Video News

The 2009 Super Bowl is going to be a  3D blitz, with commercials and trailers slated to air in 3D. One of the most anticipated is the SoBe Lizards take on "Swan Lake."  The video, in 2D can be seen here. But, perhaps more interesting is...

To commemorate three decades of innovation and success in OLED technology in advance of Display Week 2017, the Society for Information Display (SID) has shared an infographic that traces OLED’s evolution from early R&D through its present day status as a major display technology.

DVD: The Color Purple Special Edition—Warner Brothers
Audio: 4
Video: 4
Extras: 4
Although many critics criticized The Color Purple as a "safe" version of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel at the time of its theatrical release, the film still garnered 11 Academy Award nominations in 1985. Inexplicably, it managed to lose in every single category. To make matters worse, Steven Spielberg wasn't even nominated for best director, despite the film's nomination for best picture. There were rumors at the time of a Hollywood conspiracy against the ultra-successful Spielberg, and, after watching the new two-disc special-edition DVD of The Color Purple, I almost believe them. Perhaps best known for the powerful big-screen debuts of Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, The Color Purple boasts superb acting performances across the board.

DVD: City by the Sea—Warner Brothers
Audio: 3
Video: 3
Extras: 2
Uniformly strong performances by the leads, notably Robert De Niro and James Franco, highlight and give added cache to a gritty drama that often looks and feels like an independent production. De Niro is a veteran New York detective who learns that his estranged, drug-addicted son is a murder suspect. Himself the son of a man who was executed for a botched kidnapping decades before, De Niro's Vincent La Marca is determined to save his child from prison and, later, "suicide by cop." But he must first reconstitute his relationship with the teenager in order to help him.

DVD: Femme Fatale—Warner Brothers
Audio: 3
Video: 3
Extras: 2
The good news is that the lovely Rebecca Romjin-Stamos has now removed all doubt that she can act well enough to anchor a major motion picture. The sad part of the story is that Femme Fatale is a strange blend of Run Lola Run and the worst of filmmaker Brian De Palma's own canon that made me repeatedly ask both, "What the hell is going on?" and "Why does any studio finance ridiculous De Palma movies like this?" Brunette doppelgangers, double-crosses, alternate realities: You figure it out, if you have two hours to kill.

DVD-Audio: Joey Ramone, Don't Worry About Me (Silverline)
A friend of mine once said about the Ramones, "They're stupid, but they'll never lie to you." He was wrong about the stupidity but right about the sincerity. Who but Joey Ramone could do such a convincing cover of "What a Wonderful World"? In his hands, the song made famous by Louis Armstrong becomes a buzz-saw vision of a better world. With his death from leukemia not far off, the former lead singer of the Ramones wasn't in the mood for irony.

DVD: The Transporter—20th Century Fox
Audio 4
Video 4
Extras 3
In this film's transport to DVD, 20th Century Fox was able to keep the enthralling lack of plot and the eye-bleeding action scenes intact. The stone-faced Jason Statham plays a driver that transports stuff. I really mean stuff; he'll drive anything anywhere. Carrying the entire movie on about 100 lines of dialogue, Statham mostly just runs around punching, kicking, and shooting. At one point, he even puts his shirt on. This isn't to say that the movie isn't entertaining; it's just as intelligent as the banjo player from Deliverance.