Thomas J. Norton

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Band of Brothers
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 12, 2003

<I>Directed by Phil Alden Robinson, Richard Loncraine, Mikael Salomen, David Nutter, Tom Hanks, David Leland, David Frankel, Tony To. Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 (letterbox). Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Dolby Surround (English, French, Spanish). Five discs. 700 minutes. 2000. HBO Video 99205. NR. $119.98.</I>

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Audio Video News
Ben-Hur On DVD
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 05, 2001

<I>Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Sam Jaffe. Directed by William Wyler. Aspect ratio: 2.76:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Dolby Surround 2.0 (English, French). 212 minutes. 1959. Warner Home Video 65506. G. $24.95</I>

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Audio Video News
Black Hawk Down on DVD
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 25, 2002

<I>Josh Hartnett. Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ewen Bremner, Sam Shepard. Directed by Ridley Scott. Aspect ratio: 2.40:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1 (English, French). 144 minutes. 2001. Columbia Tri-Star 06766. R. $27.96.</I>

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Chariots of Fire
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 13, 2005

<I>Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers, Cheryl Campbell, Alice Krige. Directed by Hugh Hudson. Aspect ratio: 1.85:1(anamorphic). 124 minutes. 1981. Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital mono (French). Warner Brothers 31908. PG. $26.99.</I>

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Die Another Day: Special Edition
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 21, 2003

<I>Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, Dolby Surround (French, Spanish), DTS 5.1 ES (English). MGM Home Entertainment 1004346. PG-13. $29.98.</I>

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Audio Video News
Doctor Zhivago on DVD
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 24, 2002

<I>Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Tom Courtenay, Siobhan McKenna, Ralph Richardson, Rita Tushingham. Directed by David Lean. Aspect ratio: 2.35 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1 (English, French). Two discs. 200 minutes. 1965. Warner Home Video 6557. PG-13. $29.98.</I>

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A/V Veteran
Dune, at Last
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 26, 2021
There have been several past attempts to adapt Frank Herbert's iconic science fiction novel to film or television. In the mid-1970s, cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky scripted an ambitious version that would have run 14 hours!! The enormous planning effort for this version never made it onto film, due not only to this running length but also to the enormous anticipated costs. (At the time it was never considered for television—this was long before episodic event TV.) But Jodorowsky's work was so ambitious that it inspired a well-received 2013 documentary on the project, Jodorowsky's Dune, currently available both via streaming and on Blu-ray. Nevertheless, the novel itself, and Jodorowsky's aborted version, are said to have inspired other space operas, such as Star Wars, with elements from Dune but clearly different story lines...
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A/V Veteran
Dune, Theaters, and Streaming
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 09, 2021
The changes to how we watch media resulting from the closing of theaters due to the Covid-19 pandemic have been unprecedented. True, not all theaters are closed. Here in the wilds of Florida my local AMC has been open for some time. But its current slate of movies is hardly the stuff of dreams: Boogie, Chaos Walking, The Mauritanian (not The Mandalorian!), The Little Things, The Marksman, The Croods: A New Age, and Raya and the Last Dragon. The latter is the only one tempting me to break my year long hiatus from that theater's Dolby Vision and IMAX auditoriums, but not quite enough for me to do so even though I've now joined the few, the proud, and the vaccinated.

A whole spate of potential blockbusters have either been released to streaming or are being held over until the studios are confident that if they show them (in theaters) they will come.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial:Limited Collector's Edition Page 1
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jan 22, 2003

<I>Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX (English, French), DTS 5.1 Surround ES. Two discs. 121 minutes. 1982. Universal 22257. PG. $29.98.</I>

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Audio Video News
Everest: A Must See DVD
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jun 18, 2000

N<I>arrated by Liam Neeson. Directed by David Brashears, Greg MacGillivray, and Stephen Judson. Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 (full frame). 45 minutes. 1998. Dolby Digital 5.1. Miramax Collector's Series 16539. NR. $24.98.</I>

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