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Walt Disney’s Funny Factory with Donald, Volume 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 19th, 2006

This disc is one of those classic cartoon sets that is marketed directly to children alone. Serious animation collectors will no doubt go for Disney’s fantastic Walt Disney Treasures releases instead of a one off release such as this one. This disc is one of those products that is set up as a quick point of purchase sale for parents that need something to throw in the DVD player while in the mini-van, or to keep the kids entertained while the parents are busy doing laundry or making dinner.

The simple …
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Jarhead

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 18th, 2006

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In the era we live in, the eventuality of a movie about a soldier’s experience in war was going to come, whether or not we wanted to see the film. Since the war in Iraq is such a hot button topic with a majority of people, regardless if you were for the war or against the war, Universal thought this would be the perfect moment to capture our interest in war. Enter director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) and stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) and Academy-Award winning Actor Jamie Foxx (Ray) …
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MI-5, Volume 3

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 18th, 2006

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I think all true DVD fans have a list in their mind of movies or television programs that they find to be utterly captivating, and simply cannot fathom why the rest of the world doesn’t feel the same. I have some products on that list in my mind, and MI-5 may very well be on the top.

I first discovered MI-5 when I was sent Volume 2 to review. Upon watching the first episode of that season , I was so completely blown away that I promptly sent away for Volume 1 before proceeding any farther. I was…
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Domino

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 15th, 2006

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Synopsis

Inspired, rather than based, on the life of bounty hunter Domino Harvey, this exercise in monumentally brain-dead excess sees Keira Knightley in the title role. The daughter of Manchurian Candidate star Laurence Harvey, she rebels against the posh Beverly Hills life of her mother (Jacqueline Bisset) to become the bounty hunting partner of Mickey Rourke and Edgar Ramirez, working for Delroy Lindo. Christopher Walken is the TV producer who designs a reality show around the trio and two …
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King Kong (2005)

Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on February 14th, 2006

On March 28th, Universal Home Video will release Peter Jackson’s King Kong in separate 1-disc Standard and 2-disc Special Editions. Each version will be presented in an anamorphic widescreen transer, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. As extras are announced, we will pass them along.

Valiant

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 14th, 2006

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Disney’s Valiant is a film by the producers of Shrek, but it is certainly not up to the same caliber of filmmaking. Still, it has a certain charm despite its rather obvious humor. Also, the animation is excellent. Children are sure to love this story of a young pigeon named Valiant, who wants to join the Allied Forces in the fight during World War II. He’s a cute little guy, but he’s too small to reach his lofty aspirations… or so all those close to him say. But when every squad of carrier pigeons is …
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Cheaper by the Dozen 2

Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on February 10th, 2006

Fox Home Entertainment will release the Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt family comedy Cheaper By The Dozen 2 on March 14th. This disc will be presented in both anamorphic widescreen and full screen transfers, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras will include an Audio Commentary (by Director Adam Shankman), trhee featurettes (“Fox Movie Channel: Casting Session,” “Camp Chaos,” & “Comedic Trio”), and Trailers.

Supercross

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 8th, 2006

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One of the unfortunate responses to the emergence of a successful movie is the appearance of copycat films. When Gladiator won the Academy Award for Best Picture, all these sword and sandal flicks went into production. Now we have epics such as Troy, Kingdom of Heaven and Alexander to show for it. Sometimes, the backlash is even worse when the hit film is a bit of a surprise hit. Such was the case with The Fast and the Furious. Now, I really enjoyed Furious, but I knew on the…
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Saraband

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 7th, 2006

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A sequel to Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 classic Scenes from a Marriage, Saraband reintroduces us to Marianne (Liv Ullman) and Johan (Erland Josephson) after 32 years apart, when Marianne decides it’s time to pay her ex-husband a visit. Upon arrival, she becomes involved in strained family relations between Johan, his son Henrik (Borje Ahlstedt), and Henrik’s daughter Karin (Julia Dufvenius). There are implications that Henrik and daughter share an incestuous relationship, highlighted by a scene where they lie…
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Funny Factory with Mickey Volume 1

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 7th, 2006

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I have always held a place in my mind and heart for the warmth of Mickey, even though I usually prefer the antics of Goofy or Donald Duck. Mickey just seems to have that innocent, charming look to him that one would not picture as someone who would get into mischief. This is probably why Disney slowly phased Mickey out of cartoon shorts and relied more on Donald Duck, Goofy and the rest. Funny Factory with Mickey Volume 1 contains 8 Mickey shorts totaling 61 minutes.

The 8 cartoons we are given range…
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Once Upon a Mattress

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 6th, 2006

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Synopsis

At first glance Once Upon a Mattress would appear to be a bit of a Disney cash grab, an often performed musical featuring a couple of aging comediennes, one of which had performed a role in the musical for decades.

Based on a musical by Dean Fuller and Marshall Barer and directed by Kathleen Marshall, Once Upon a Mattress is a musical and hilarious take on The Princess and the Pea. Sir Harry and Lady Larkin (Zooey Deschanel, Elf) are in love with one another, b…
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Bruce Almighty

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 6th, 2006

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Synopsis

For awhile, Jim Carrey looked to be taking the career path that Michael Keaton had previously established. Start off with strong, hilarious comedic performances, attempt to get into dramatic roles with some critical success, and fade into the sunset, with the occasional bad script choice. While Carrey hasn’t dipped into the Jack Frost period yet, with The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, Carrey had established the fact that he could pull off carrying a dramatic movie, and do it…
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Five Heartbeats, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 5th, 2006

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The concept of the musical biopic is nothing new. We have seen many films come and go, some good and some bad. A majority of these musical biopic films try to tell the rising of a group, whether or not the group is a reality, in a manner that will connect with the audience. Robert Townsend’s The Five Heartbeats is a prime example of a film that connects with its audience by taking this concept of the musical biopic just that one step further than we might expect from a film like this.

The Five Hea…
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Undeclared – The Complete Series

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 5th, 2006

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Judd Apatow and Paul Feig may have been stung by the criticism and cancellation of their show Freaks and Geeks back in 2000, but that did not deter them from pressing forward with another project. Freaks and Geeks was about a group of kids growing up in high school in the 1980s, while Undeclared is about the first year of college for a group of kids.

Now there are a lot of similiarities between Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, but I’ll focus on some of the bigger things, b…
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Stormy Weather

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 5th, 2006

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Synopsis

Knowing that Stormy Weather is the title of a song that helped vault Lena Horne (The Wiz) into celebrity fandom, I had very little other ideas about her. But the cool thing that I discovered while watching the film is that, for the age of this film, it’s better than anyone would possibly think.

Horne plays Selina Rogers, a beautiful talented singer who was dating the head of an entertainment show that came through New York. She catches the eye of Bill (Bill “Bojangles” Robin…
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Island in the Sun

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 3rd, 2006

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Harry Belafonte stars as an ambitious young politician, who refuses to fear the white majority that holds a foothold over his island home, in Island in the Sun. Along the way, he strikes up a romance with Joan Fontaine. Incidentally, we are supposed to believe Ms. Fontaine’s character is younger than Belafonte’s, despite the fact that she looks ten years older. Dorothy Dandridge also stars as a pharmacy clerk, who falls in love with the white aide to the island’s governor. If this seems like it’s all over the …
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Tracey Takes On… – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2006

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I would be a fool if I downplayed Tracey Ullman’s talent. She is a woman with anomalous abilities that most performers couldn’t dream of acquiring. She is an accomplished singer, a chameleon-like comedienne, and a serious actress – all in one unbelievable package with a multitude of awards to verify her capabilities. She’s also quite attractive when the light hits her a certain way, but she has a knack for too often burying that beauty under clever disguises. All these features result in a performer, who can do just …
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Grizzly Man

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 2nd, 2006

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In the era of the popularity of documentaries, it seems that everywhere we look a new documentary is coming out about another subject. From Michael Moore’s look into the Bush administration’s ties with the Sauds in Fahrenheit 911, to the recent look into the world of penguins in March of the Penguins, each documentary holds something special as they bring us to a world we may have never known if it not for these filmmakers. One of the more special documentaries in recent time is an extremely powerful na…
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Aristocrats, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2006

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Synopsis

I never thought that a 90 minute documentary surrounding one joke could be so entertaining. And for all the praise that critics have heaped onto The Aristocrats, I was curious to see what the hype was. The film’s creators, comedians Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller) spend the time interviewing many different comedians, and all of them share their thoughts about the joke. But it does a little more than that. Along with various versions of the joke, there is a deconstruction…
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Doom

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2006

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I will be honest and inform you that I have yet to like a video game based film since 1995’s Mortal Kombat. It seems that no matter how closely they try to follow the story based on the game, the director always fails. One of the more famous director’s in the video-game to movie based series is director Uwe Boll, who has brought us The House of the Dead and the recent Bloodrayne, These movies, as the popular consensus agrees, were extremely awful. They lacked anything redeeming, despite the orig…
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Sing Along Songs – You Can Fly

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2006

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Synopsis

Disney has released a DVD that appears to be part of a compilation, and provided some karaoke subtitles and marketing it as a sing-along entitled “You Can Fly”. With animated (but dated) introductions by Disney characters, the songs featured are from such films as Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Mary Poppins and Dumbo.

For those who enjoyed Disney films in previous years, some of the obscure songs (along with some of the more popular ones) have been resurrected on …
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Roll Bounce

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2006

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If you aren’t familiar with what Roll Bounce is, you will be pleasantly surprised by some of the tricks this small coming-of-age film pulls out of its hat. I expected horrendous acting, a poorly written script, and a story that cared more about racially motivated laughs than honesty. What I got was just the opposite. First of all, the film’s success begins and ends with a top-drawer screenplay that perfectly captures teen angst as well as the fears and traumas of growing up. Not something one would expect abou…
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Mission: Impossible (Collector’s Edition)

Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on January 31st, 2006

Paramount Home Entertainment will finally release the Special Collector’s Edition of the Tom Cruise action flick Mission: Impossible on April 11th. This disc will be presented in an anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras will include seven featurettes (“40 Years of Creating the Impossible,” “Explosive Exploits,” “Spies Among Us,” “Catching the Train,” “International Spy Museum,” “Generation: Cruise,” & “Agent Dossiers”), a Stanley Kubrick Award f…
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Yesterday

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 31st, 2006

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Yesterday is a powerful tale of the title character’s struggle to survive AIDS long enough to see her young daughter Beauty start school. Yesterday – named by her father because, in his opinion, yesterday was much better than today – lives for her young daughter. Her husband works in the mines of Johannesburg and carries a deadly secret, which, by the start of the film, has already entered his wife’s bloodstream. Through it all, Yesterday keeps bright spirits and a smile across her face. She only loses it when…
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American Women

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 30th, 2006

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American Women is a difficult film to write about because it evokes such little passion from its viewer. By no standards is it a good film, but pinpointing its frailties becomes quite the daunting task. Set in a small Irish village, the story centers on a group of sexist men, who want to import girls from America because the ones accessible to them do not meet up to the appropriate standards. The plot is farfetched, even as goofball comedies go, and none of the male characters are likeable. Also, with so many …
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