Dolby Digital EX (English)

Well if you don’t know what is going on in this film then I am not quite sure why you are reading this review. This is the third and final installment of the Lord of the Ring’s trilogy, we finally after three long years get to discover the fate of Frodo, the ring, Sam, Gollum and all of Middle Earth. This film like The Two Towers just keeps getting better and managing to exceed our ever increasing expectations.

The multiple story lines all come together and finally conclude themselves, maybe not quite exac...ly as it is in the book but some changes had to be made. The only complaint about the film itself is that the endings seem to drag on longer then necessary but again when viewed in the context of the books it actually wraps up quite neatly and quickly. Nonetheless the film is superb and for all those collectors out there we are still waiting with baited breath for the announcement of the 4 disc extended cut but, this will keep is satisfied until then.

The Final Countdown belongs to that subculture of science fiction that asks the time related what if’s. There have been a great number of books and stories about alternative histories. The Civil War has long been one of the most fertile grounds for this speculative fiction. Most scenarios about World War II generally involved the killing of Hitler as a child or sometime before his leadership. This film not only explores a different aspect of the War but is brave enough to not resolve the question. What would happen i... a modern aircraft carrier were to arrive at the point of the Pearl Harbor invasion? The cast is a solid A-list. Martin Sheen, Kirk Douglas, Katherine Ross, and James Farentino are the vanguard of the spectacular cast. The film received a tremendous amount of cooperation from the U.S. Navy, and a considerable amount of shooting occurred on the USS Nimitz.

Synopsis

I can only imagine what it might have been like to be a child during the heyday of Disney’s live films division. Going to see The Parent Trap or Mary Poppins as a young girl must really have been exciting. Experiencing Pete’s Dragon or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the theater must have been a thrill for young lads.

Unfortunately, Disney has not lived up to those high standards in its later days. Part of the wonder of those films was that they were not children’s films, as much as s...andard feature films that were easily accessible to children. While there is nothing wrong with films such as Angels in the Outfield, The Mighty Ducks or George of the Jungle, they just don’t have the same classic quality that the older Disney films had. The genre grew into a direction that made these modern films a little more sterile, and a little lower quality than your average Hollywood production.

Based on a ride at Disneyland, you probably would not have expected much except for the fact that you have Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush cast as the leads. The Black Pearl is a mysterious pirate ship half old-wives-tale half ghost story. Geoffery Rush plays Captain Barbossa the captain of the Black Pearl he sails the seas in search of every last piece of cursed Aztec gold to try and free himself and his mates. Johnny Depp plays the roguish Captain Jack Sparrow (the acting for this part was based on Keith Richards) on...e captain of the Black Pearl and trying to find his ship and get it back. Add to the mix Keira Knightley as the kidnapped daughter of a governor and Orlando Bloom as the son of a long lost pirate and you are ready for a rousing good time on the high seas. The story is pretty straight forward, the acting is great and the film looks fantastic all adding up to one of the best popcorn flicks in a long time.

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Who wants to see the middle of a movie, anyway? The beginning of the movie introduces the characters and presents the conflict. The ending holds the resolution and the conclusion. But the middle? Who wants to just see the middle? Nobody comes late and leaves early at the Cineplex. Nobody sane, anyway. This is not just any film, though. This is an Epic. Literally everything about this production is huge. The original text of the story was actually so long that it had to be divided into three volumes. The companion fil... is equally as massive. It also covers three volumes, with each volume clocking in at a length much longer than most rational people are willing to tolerate.

Yes, this is a film of Epic proportions, and the Extended Edition DVD is no different. Over 43 minutes of extra footage has been added to The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers, bringing the total run time to 3 hours, 43 minutes. It's not just filler footage, either. Over 200 new digital effects were created for the DVD release; more than most films have in their original theatrical versions. The added material helps the film instead of hurting it, providing more room to develop characters and plot lines. In this case, more is more.

This, the third DVD release of T2, reiterates the genius behind this film. With this disc, we are given the same extended edition and theatrical version as found on the Ultimate Edition release, but the new High Definition transfer found on this Extreme Edition makes this 10+ year old film look brand new.

This disc is set to play the 16-minute extended version of the film. If you prefer the theatrical version, on the main menu, go to Sensory Control, and hit the right arrow on your remote 5 times. After ...ou have done this, you will notice “The future is not set” appear on the right, and the theatrical version is now accessible.

Based one the wildly successful Harry Potter series of novels, this film is based on book two of the series. As sophomore jinx’s go this one could have been far worse, the problem here is we no longer have the wonder of a new world to explore but, we still have characters that are not fully fleshed out yet either. The plot is somewhat predictable in that we have the same villain as the previous novel, albeit in a different form. Harry Potter and the usual cast of characters return for another year of adventure at Hog...arts, this time we see a story line that is much darker then the first as the kids have grown up a little and are ready for bigger and scarier things. Parents with small children who where a fan of the first film may want to watch this with out the kids first to insure that it is appropriate for their kids as there are a couple of very frightening scenes.

The first film was criticized for a couple of things, firstly the quidditch scenes where kind of flat and all though the DVD release boasted that it had lots of great extra features it fell somewhat flat as well. I can safely say that they made great improvements to quidditch, you will have to read on though to find out if the extra features have improved.

Why is there yet another DVD of Stargate? This time it really is an improvement. The Ultimate Edition contains a director’s cut which is about 16 minutes longer than the original. If you like the original better, a second disc is included which contains the original cut. This was Devlin and Emmerich’s first real blockbuster. I found Independence Day and The Patriot to be better films, but Stargate has its moments. It’s a little hard for me to accept Kurt Russell as Jack O’Neal after 7 years of Richard Dean Anderson. I did gain a new appreciation for how closely James Spader and Michael Shanks portray the pivotal character of Daniel Jackson.

Synopsis