Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 27th, 2007
I don't think any documentarian in history has been as famous as Ken Burns. His series on the Civil War is what first made him a household name, and his in depth looks at baseball, New York City and jazz are what has solidified his place in the American consciousness as the world's premiere documentary filmmaker. He is so well-respected, in fact, that his method of making still photographs interesting by zooming and panning is actually known as the Ken Burns Effect.
Burns' latest film endeavor focuses on World War II, which may be the most covered documentary subject in history. This topic should present his greatest challenge; a subject that has millions of experts and thousands of pre-existing documentaries, including the very well respected "The World At War", which is considered the gold standard. There are still many veterans of the war alive today, which could be both a blessing and a curse. While they can certainly help with insight into key events, they are also the first to criticize if the film does not accurately portray the battles as they transpired. It is a tall order, but if anyone could meet this challenge, Ken Burns is the one to do it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 24th, 2007
I can still remember the first time I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was just after my birthday in June, and I had some time to kill on a weekday afternoon. I didn’t recall seeing a lot of hype, and it seemed no one knew just how huge the film was going to be. My expectations were not really high. The film looked interesting, and I was just looking to escape for a couple of hours. By the time I left that theater, I felt a little bit like Indiana Jones himself having made some grand discovery. I had to tell my friends. I even managed to drag a friend who hadn’t liked a movie since 1972 to see it with me the very next day. Of course, the film was followed by The Temple Of Doom, and my faith in old Indy Jones was shaken somewhat. Along came The Last Crusade, and I was born again into the world that was Indiana Jones. All of us are now gearing up for a fourth film after what seems like decades, because it has been. However, the decades have not been a complete Indiana Jones blackout. For a short time Indiana Jones could be found in the most unlikely of places… network television. Enter The Adventures Of Young
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 9th, 2007
I'm not much of a soccer fan. I played a few years as a kid, for a local community club, but quit well before puberty. I almost never watch it on TV, even when the World Cup bandwagon rolls around. The only players I can name are Pelé, Beckham and Hamm. And Knightley, but I suppose the Bend it Like Beckham star doesn't count.
With my limited knowledge and appreciation of the game, I didn't expect much from this HBO documentary. Sure, I know sports stories can be dramatic and exciting, but the U.S. Women's Soccer Team? Not my first choice of subjects. Imagine my surprise when I became totally engrossed in the inspiring story of these women who gave their all when hardly anyone cared, who fought through all kinds of adversity, who dared to dream.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 10th, 2007
Would you believe me if I told you a nature documentary was responsible for the advent of the summer blockbuster? Common film lore says Steven Spielberg's Jaws was the first of the now familiar summer smashes. Jaws was based Peter Benchley's book of the same name. Benchley was inspired by Blue Water, White Death, a groundbreaking documentary film about divers on a nine-month expedition to seek out, film and swim with a Great White Shark.
That's one reason you should watch Blue Water, White Death. There are easily a hundred more.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 20th, 2007
In August 1945, the world was transformed in the blink of an eye when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That act of destruction sparked the end of World War II, and the beginning of endless suffering for those who survived.
It was the first and only attack with nuclear weapons in our history, and the story of White Light/Black Rain is the reason it should never, ever happen again. Hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of the bombings, but when you meet the survivors, it seems that the worst victims were those who lived.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 9th, 2007
Sometime after 1990 when Blue Planet was released, I remember really wanting to see it. Unfortunately I was young and with time my interest in the worlds around our own dwindled. Recently with the advancements in technology my interest in space has sparked up again, making for just the right time for Blue Planet to land in my hands. After nearly 20 years I’ll be able to set my eyes on this for the first time, and in hi-definition. Then of course there’s the additional documentary The Dream Is Alive of which I’ve never previously heard of. The footage on this one is over 20 years old, so my expectations aren’t extremely high.
Blue Planet is an interesting documentary and I can imagine it was quite a bit more ground breaking upon its 1990 release. The film is a cumulative collection of all things Earth, from space, from the ground, and form the ocean floor. There is some amazing footage; more specifically is the footage from the U.S Space Station in orbit. From here we learn about the creation of Earth, the constant changes Earth undergoes and mankind’s role in it. Although in the end I was left wanting more, I was still pleasantly surprised with the images I got to see.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 2nd, 2007
This is, I gather, part of a series of documentaries under the wider umbrella of “America Undercover,†and is not the first of the taxicab ones. What we have here is a collection of vignettes as various people hail a cab and, captured by the cab’s security camera, engage in revealing conversations with the driver. Most of these discussions deal with relationships and sex (the guy and his transsexual girlfriend, the guy with the big woman fetish, the guy with a thing for “crazy chicks†and so on). Over the course of the hour, this becomes a little tiresome, and one hopes for a passenger with something else on his/her mind. This moment finally comes in the form of a passenger whose former boyfriend is a firefighter who barely escaped the collapse of the World Trade Center with his life, and her narrative, moving and disturbing, is the highlight of the episode.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 17th, 2007
Mars has always held a certain fascination with us mostly earthbound humans. What child has never looked to the heavens at night, mind filled with more questions than they could ever hope to find answers for? If you are one of these star crossed dreamers, Roving Mars be a thrilling journey indeed. I’m sorry to say that I missed the Roving Mars IMAX experience. I’m sure it was available at one of the several IMAX facilities here in Tampa. Life, as usual, is often too busy to get to everything I want to see. As I wat...hed this DVD I found myself wishing I’d taken the time to see it at our local domed IMAX at MOSI.
We begin our exploration in a familiar enough place, here on Earth. The environs, however, are not so commonplace. The people and the facilities at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab have a decidedly science fiction appearance to them. Here in clean rooms gather scientists in garb intended to keep them from contaminating the delicate equipment that is assembled here. Here over 4,000 people dream, design, and assemble. The result is a culmination of decades of technological work and over a millennium of imagination. We are treated to an intimate look behind the scenes as these incredible rovers are created. Interviews with crucial team members give us the failures as well as the success stories. Through trial and error every minute facet of this machine had to be built, tested, and more often than not, redesigned. Then the cycle begins anew. The time spent here might test our patience a tad. Still, it is important to understand the rover itself before we can appreciate the mission that we’re waiting to witness.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 17th, 2007
Synopsis
Famed for his obsessive love of petroleum jelly as a medium for sculpture, Matthew Barney uses 45 000 pounds of the stuff in the creation of Drawing Restraint 9. This film documents the making of that piece, which is both sculpture and film, done aboard a Japanese whaling vessel. Intimately involved in the production is Barney’s collaborator and partner Björk.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 25th, 2007
Perhaps Woodstock is the best known music festival, but only one has kept strong for several decades and still going - Glastonbury. A small town in the southeast of England is the host to a sizeable music festival that spans for several days and attracts in excess of 150,000 people. Like a lot of you I’m sure, I had never heard of this music festival and after watching this once I’ll probably never get wind of it again.
The first disc of Glastonbury is a documentary on the festival it is not in chron...logical order but includes footage from the 60’s all the way through to the latest festival in 2005. It interviews some of the colorful people attending the festival over the years, the staff involved, and of course the bands that play. At first I was interested in this disc thinking I would get the chance to watch these bands play live, but instead I sat through 130 minutes of hippies rolling around naked in mud, with the odd montage of performances. Really I found this to be a weak documentary, I was not interested in the people dancing like fools to bongo drums, holding up lighters and crying, getting naked and just acting totally like a junkie. The people interviewed and shown in the footage in this documentary were just utterly weird, and not interesting. The only somewhat interesting and normal parts of this documentary were the footage of the most recent festival where there was a lack of hippies. Of course I did enjoy the live and uncut performances that were shown, more specifically on disc 2. Although there are some big names and famous songs played in this documentary and subsequent extras disc but I didn’t like enough of the musicians to enjoy this disc myself. If you do however like Radiohead, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, The Killers, Foo Fighters, David Gray, The White Stripes, etc. like I’m sure a load of you do then you might enjoy the odd sequence where you get to see them play.
![Blue Planet (IMAX) [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/blue-planet-imax-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
