TALES FROM THE CRYPT: The Complete First Season (1989)
 	*TALES FROM THE CRYPT THEME MUSIC PLAYS, AS THE CAMERA SHOOTS THROUGH A SPOOKY HAUNTED MANSION. THE CAMERA REACHES THE BASEMENT, OUT POPS THE CRYPT KEEPER WITH HIS MENACING CACKLE* "TALES FROM THE CRYPT". This show is one of my all-time favorites. I used to sit in front of the television with my father every Saturday night when this  show came on. The stories in this show were so amazing and so well done, that I couldn't help myself when I became hooked on the show, and I was only four-years-old when this show debuted with its first season back in 1989.

     TALES FROM THE CRYPT takes you on a journey through six horrifying episodes, each one scaring you in one way or another. This here first season only includes six episodes, but all six are very terrifying, and many ways, rather comical as well.

#1: THE MAN WHO WAS DEATH (aired June 10, 1989)
   This spook-tacular episode shows a man named NILES (played by William Saddler, who would then go on to take the male lead role in the first-ever TALES FROM THE CRYPT motion picture entitled, TALES FROM THE CRYPT presents DEMON KNIGHT), who has spent the last twelve years of his life shooting electricity into prisoners, sending out their life sentences. But now, a law has been passed to ban the life sentence, for even executing murderers and law breakers is "Still Murder Within The Eyes of God". Niles then appears in a few court cases where the defendants happen to be let off the hook, despite the fact they are indeed guilty. This leaves Niles to privately execute the defendants, where it leads Niles into his own arrest, where is then in for a "Shocking" surprise.

#2: AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE (aired June 10, 1989)
  In this chilling Holiday-filled episode, a woman murders her husband in cold blood on Christmas Eve. As she tries to bury the body outside in the freezing cold snow, she neglects to hear on the news that an escaped mental patient as broken out of the sanitarium, and has already killed four women in the county. The news has even stated that the patient has been seen wearing a Santa Claus suit, a suit he had stolen from one his victims. The mental patient stumbles upon this woman, practically killing her, but she seems to have killed him by stabbing him in the stomach. As she gets a hold of the police on the phone, she is told by the police to look around for a weapon to use, since she has informed the police that the patient has gotten up and entered her house, after she stabbed him the stomach. She goes into the closet to get her gun, but the door locks. As she pounds on the door, trying to get out, the patient climbs up to the woman's daughter's bedroom, with the daughter thinking that's it the real Santa. She busts through the closet and finds her daughter safe and sound, holding "Santa" by the hand, with her mother screaming at the top of her lungs.

#3: DIG THAT CAT...HE'S REAL GONE (aired June 10, 1989)
   In this brilliant episode, ULRIC (played by Joe Pantoliano) comes across a seemingly mad scientist, who gives Ulric an offer he can't refuse: Have the gland of a cat inserted into his brain to give him the ability to resurrected after he is killed. The surgery goes successful, where Ulric becomes a classic act at the county fairs. He has been drowned, shot in the heart with an arrow, electrocuted, and many more. But he just kept coming back from beyond the grave. Here is now about to pull his next death stunt: being buried alive for twelve hours, and then resurrected. But...wait a minute. Ulric has already died and been resurrected...nine times.

#4: ONLY SIN DEEP (aired June 14, 1989)
   In this sexy and beauty-filled episode, SYLVIA (played by Lea Thompson) is a 21-year-old hooker, looking to quit the business and clean up her act. She does so with the money she has robbed from her pimp...after killing him. She goes into a pawn shop to have her pimp's jewelery, but the pawner reveals that the jewelery isn't worth crap, for the jewelery is "hot". But he's willing to pay Sylvia $10,000 for her "beauty". He informs her that if she wants her beauty back, she has to get it back within a four-month period. Okay, whatever, you old whack-job. Sylvia goes through with the pawning of her beauty and goes out on her way with her 10 Gs. She meets a playboy and begins dating him. Four months go by and Sylvia begins seeing some odd changes in her complextion. She goes to a dermotologist, but he cannot seem to figure out what is wrong, where it is then and there that Sylvia figures out that the pawner was not kidding. She demands her beauty back, but the pawner will only sell it back to her for...$100,000. She kills her playboy boyfriend, and scrapes up every piece of jewelery he ever bought her. She gets her beauty back, which was formed in a plaster-of-paris head of her own self, but it ends up being smashed to pieces when one of Sylvia's hooker friends bumps right into her, not recognizing Sylvia, for she has become so hideous, like an old, disgusting haggard witch.

#5: LOVER, COME HACK TO ME (aired June 21, 1989)
  In this ciller, Charles has found Peggy, the perfect girl. Peggy has found Charles, the perfect man. The two have married, against the wishes of Peggy's aunt. On their way to their honeymoon, they are stranded into an old house, where they have to succomb into spending their wedding night in this disgusting old house. Peggy wants her wedding night to be perfect, so consumating their marriage on the sofa is not a good idea. Comsumating their marriage in a bed is much better. They do their thing, and they both fall asleep, where Peggy says in a sort of joking way that they've made a child, a little girl. Charles falls asleep, but he wakes up to the sound of Peggy entering the house with another man. He watches his own wife screw another guy on the sofa, where they guy falls asleep, while Peggy tells him of how they've just conceived a child, a little girl. She then picks up an axe, leans over to the man's ear and simply says, "Peggy would make a great name for our little girl, wouldn't it?" She swings the axe and kills the guy she just had sex with. Charles wakes up in horror, for it was only a nightmare, but it was a nightmare about a true fact: Peggy's mother had killed her Peggy's father on their wedding night, after they had consumated their marriage, where her mother and father had just conceived Peggy that very night. Peggy's mother said she did it to consume the perfect love to a perfect wedding night. But Charles claims that he didn't marry Peggy out of love. He married her for her money, and he was going to murder Peggy that very night, report to the police that an accident had happened, where he would inherit the money, but Peggy has made a change in plans: continuing her family tradition, which is: Murdering her husband to consume the perfect love on the perfect wedding night, after consumating their marriage, which led into the conception of their daughter.

#6: COLLECTION COMPLETED (aired June 28, 1989)
  In this lame episode, Audrey Lindley (the actress best known for her role as HELEN ROPER on Three's Company) plays a lonely housewife, who's husband named JULIAS has just retired. One the first day of his retirement, her husband is already going crazy because of all the animals his wife has in the house. She continues to claim that she does not want to get rid of the animals because they are her "friends", they've kept her company all those years her husband had spent working, instead of paying more attention to his own wife. Days go by, and the house is seeing less and less of the animals. Julias then shows his wife where all the animals have gone: in his basement...stuffed. The last animal to be taken care of is a cat, but Julias' wife bashes his skull in. But the next afternoon, she is sitting in the living room with Julias, talking to him as if he were still alive. Their friendly next-door neighbor drops by, where he discovers Julias' stuffed body.

    This was a great season. But stay tuned, Boils and Ghouls. There's plenty more terrifying tales to come in the following seasons *CRYPT KEEPER'S CACKLE


Straight Up!
 	Visually  and  aurally this is a feast!  Great musicianship, excellent lighting, colour, camera angles etc etc.   If you know  and  like Pat  and  know the piece you won't be really disappointed BUT the reason it's 4*  and  not 5* for me is a combination of 2 things relatively insignificant in themselves but together worth knocking off a star.  First, there's no intro (the first note is struck with the title screen still showing)  and  no pictures of the band standing  and  taking the crowd's ovation (the credits start rolling straight after the last note);  I always find it nice to get a sense of the atmosphere, location  and  occasion before AND after the music starts playing.  Second, those familiar with the piece will be aware of the extraordinary guitar/trumpet interplay closing out Part Two; well, I'm not sure if this is in the playing or sound on the night or the dvd mixing but as the sound builds the trumpet dynamic gets a bit lost  and  all you really hear as an individual voice is the guitar synth - great of course but could've been even better!  This said, 4* for a Pat product still means a "must buy"!


Anthony Hopkins sets the standard
 	'The Bunker' is one of three films that deal with Hitler's final days as the Soviets encircle Berlin and put an end to the Third Reich in April/May 1945.

'The Bunker' is both one of the best and one of the worst of the three (the others being 1973's 'Hitler: the last ten days' and 2005's 'Downfall') at the same time.  The triumph of 'The Bunker' is Anthony Hopkins tour de force performance as Hitler, at times so exact it is as if you are watching a newsreel.  The element that makes the film almost painful to watch is that almost a 1/3 of it is dedicated to the whitewashing of convicted Nazi war criminal Albert Speer.

One thing that makes 'The Bunker' different from the others is the occasional use of flashbacks, and although brief they do allow Hopkins to portray Hitler in different venues and in a relaxed mode, casually chating and enjoying the company of friends when times were fat.  In the bunker itself Hopkins turns Hitler purple in a full throttle rage as he yells about the need to destroy "the scourge and pestilence of Jewish Marxism!"

'Hitler: the last ten days' does a bit better than the rest in portraying the supporting cast of characters in the drama but one stands out in 'The Bunker' and that is Michael Lonsdale as Martin Borman, Hitler's personal secretary and gatekeeper, a man of considerable power who plays his cards close to the vest and is always scheming to stay one step ahead of his rivals.  Despite its flaws 'The Bunker' earns a high rating as the Hopkins performance simply cannot be missed.


excellent and very moving
 	this is a fantastic video. I use it regularly for teaching. It gives a wonderful  and amp; sophisticated view of chuck close as an individual and an artist, as well as a glimpse of the other artist's work who are interviewed in the video. It is filmed in a very immediate and personal style. There is nothing stiff, boring, or disconnected about it, common faults of many art videos. Anyone who has experienced a similar tragedy in their family will find the discussion of chuck's  and quot;event and quot; very moving, and not at all sappy


Curtain Call
 	Bergman first introduced us to Johan and Marianne in his 1974 masterpiece Scenes from a Marriage, one of the cinema's most exacting dissections of our all-too-human failure to connect.  Bergman and the splendid Scandanavian actors Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann took us through Johan and Marianne's marriage, divorce, and post-divorce reconciliation.  In the end, they live apart, but still make room for the bond between them.

Three decades later, Bergman, Josephson and Ullmann have given us Saraband, a late-life gift.  Marianne decides that even though she hasn't seen Johan since the 1970s, it's time to make contact again.  Johan has inherited money from an aunt, and lives in splendid isolation overlooking a lake.  She literally wakes him with a kiss, but soon enough Marianne's fantasy of an idyllic reunion evaporates as she gets drawn deeper into the power struggles in Johan's family.

Henrik, Johan's son, is staying in a nearby cottage with his daughter Karin.  Both of them still mourn Anna, Henrik's wife and Karin's mother, who died two years before.  Henrik, a music teacher, is preparing Karin, an accomplished cellist, for her conservatory entrance exams.  The elderly Johan remains cold-hearted but charismatic (not unlike Bergman's own father) and one of the questions the movie explores is why people are so attracted to him.  Henrik wants his father's affection and acceptance, even though Johan refuses to give it, ostensibly due to some slight by Henrik when he was 19 years old.  In a painful scene, Henrik goes to Johan to ask for money to help Karin, and in his 61 year old face, we see the bewilderment of the boy who never came to grips with his self-absorbed father.

For Karin, her grandfather is a counterweight to the suffocating embrace of her father.  Karin struggles to figure out what she owes Henrik, what she owes to the memory of her mother, and what she owes to herself.  She lets Marianne see some, but not all, of the turmoil she's going through.  For Marianne, her attraction to Johan remains as difficult to pin down as it was when she was married to him.  She's always wanted something from him, but since she can't define what it is, she'll probably never get it.

The struggles between the characters get played out over ten riveting scenes bookended by Marianne's opening and closing monologues.  Karin makes her choices.  Henrik reacts.  Marianne throws herself once more against Johan's emotional aloofness.  As he's done throughout his brilliant career, Bergman brings it alive through artful dialog, perfect dramatic timing, and riveting cinematic composition.  The characters are not always likable, but they are never less than engrossing.

The Criterion's DVD includes a mini-documentary of Bergman making Saraband.  We watch the 87 year old director slump to the floor to illustrate some blocking, kid around with the crew, poke and prod his actors into position.  It's a treat to watch him work.  One wonders if any other director will ever elicit such an emotionally powerful performance from Julia Dufvenius, the fine young actress who plays Karin.  One also wonders why Bergman put himself through the grueling labor of making another film after he'd announced he was through.

Bergman spent his entire career obsessed by the difficulties of human connection.  Apparently he wants to say one last thing about it, which seems to be this:  after all the tears and shouting, all the posturing and cruelty, all the reaching out and pulling back, this is what remains:  marriages of true minds (the photo of Anna used in the film is a picture of Bergman's great love, his deceased wife Ingrid); the fraught ties of fathers and sons; memories of old loves; what you give and get from children; and the devolution of the flesh.  None of it is easy, the master tells us, but all of it is necessary.  In the end, it's all you have.

What's truly sad is that Bergman, sixty years after embarking on his cinematic journey, claims that he's done.  He did for film what Shakespeare did for theater, took it to new levels by expanding the language used to describe the glories and follies of human striving.  He will certainly be missed and he can't be replaced.

But don't see Saraband for nostalgic reasons.  It's a moving, insightful film that deserves a place in the director's canon.  Saraband stands on its own, but it's a deeper experience if you watch Scenes from a Marriage first.


It's A Real Cool World
 	I'll tell ya... if I read one more review written by someone born after 1980 dissing Bakshi, I think I'm going to start kicking rump and taking names. Do people diss Disney? Hardly, until they became such a movie mill that they are computer generating what used to be created by hand with a loving touch.

Look at "Cool World" as the AntiToonworld of "Roger Rabbit". The characters are psychedelic, psychotic, retro and bent. There is a great deal of (expected) sexuality and lewdness, pushing the edge of the PG-13 as far as it can go. Lots of puns and inside jokes it takes an adult to appreciate, something Warner Bros. cartoons were masters at. Granted, they don't always hit the mark here, and there's more chemistry when the Doodles are on than when the Noids take over.

But I dare anyone to watch that scene with Holli cooing "Let's Make Love" to a sweating Mel Torme wannabe while she's having trouble keeping her Noidness intact and not feel the simulataneous urge to salivate and giggle. The transformation of Noids to Doodles when the wand is removed is humorous... a lounge lizard literally becomes one, a cowboy becomes a horse, a female lead a blank eyed Orphan Annie.

The end cap, where Byrne's character becomes a dim witted but sincere superhero, is happily reminiscent of Captain Sternn from "Heavy Metal".

Yes, the acting is practically phoned in. Yes, the plot is odd. But get over it, folks, it's adult animation, and it's entertaining. I watch it again and again... and I always laugh


A great twist on a well-used plot
 	Trapping a group of unsuspecting strangers in a house with no exits is not a new concept. They did it in Saw II, House on Haunted Hill, And Then There Were None, and I'm sure quite a few others. But that plot seems to always work. It does for me. House of 9 is no exception. It doesn't follow a storyline that's predictable, even though the plot is not unknown. There are surprises, suspense, thrills and tense moments. Believe me, you won't predict the ending. I was very satisfied with the movement of this film. It's an interesting watch


Great Film
 	Samuel Jackson and Kevin Spacey turn two distinct yet strong performances.  Jackson is always great to watch for his intensity, and this role suits that to a tee.  Spacey continues to impress with a solid and believable performance.  This film and its settings/supporting cast are *slightly* dated by today's standards, but the two main actors and the good story more than make up for it.  Highly worthwile


A better film than the first, however...
 	Spider-Man 2 is better than the original Spider-Man. I feel I should get that out of the way first, since most sequels have a tough time topping the first one. However, I feel Spider-Man 2 is only better in the sense that if the same production staff remade Spider-Man, it should naturally be better. That's what this sequel feels like, a literal remake with some spiced up elements here and there. It's a good film, but it's not really the way I thought a sequel should be.

Effects are even better than the first, and the tentacles of Doc Ock make for some truly spectacular battles, including a centerpiece on a runaway train. Tobey Maguire continues to give an excellent portrayal of Peter Parker, and has good chemistry with Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane. Alfred Molina has more to work with as Doc Ock than Dafoe did as the Goblin, and humanizes what was once a wacky villain. James Franco continues to develop Harry Osborn well, and the supporting cast like JK Simmons and Rosemary Harris fill out the high-caliber acting.

But the script needs work. It uses one of the worst superhero cliches as the main plot, that of the hero calling it quits. It's never convincing, and the film drags as we wait for Peter to realize things we've known all along. Character relationships, though well-acted, don't seem to have progressed since the first movie. We're still treading the Peter/Mary Jane love triangle, just with a different third wheel. Harry still has his on/off friendship with Peter. There are nice plot twists that shake things up towards the end, but most of the film is wasted on the exact same angst from the first one. For a story supposedly set 3 years later, it might as well have been 3 days.

We get a dvd with good extras and audio/video presentation. I enjoy Spider-Man 2 on its own, and it's nice to have it in my dvd library, but as a sequel it's not fresh enough for me. Hopefully next year's Spider-Man 3 will fix that.


Pleasantly shocking
 	Old Boy is the second film in the Revenge Trilogy by Park. The first is Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and the final being Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.

After being imprisoned for 15 years, Ho Dae-su (whose name means "getting along with everybody") is released and finds he only has 5 days to find his captor and seek his revenge. Once the captor is found, Dae-su will learn about a past he conveniently forgot and find he is in for an even bigger surprise during the final confrontation.

The film is mesmerizing, hypnotic, and well edited with flashbacks and jump cuts. Park makes an elevator ride feel like a roller coaster. There is a notable fight sequence referred to as the "one-take corrider scene" where Dae-su takes several men in mostly hand-to-hand and hammer-to-head combat.

This is a powerful film. It is a meditation on our addiction to TV, the bloody thirst for revenge, and the tomfoolery your mind resorts to when it is forced to relive your memories. The film will make you question the importance of forgetting, forgiving, and the satisfaction, or lack there of, in seeking revenge.

The movie has an incredible build leading up to the finale. The end scene is full of twists. You will be amazed and you watch the truth slowly unravel. You learn that one memory is not as it appears and that another more important memory holding the key to the puzzle was completely forgotten. You will learn that getting the revenge is not the most important thing, but instead be able to live with yourself is. You will find that neither man will be able to do so, which leads to an explosive ending. There is also a bizarre, if not disgusting, love story at the center of this.

Favorite Quote: Too many good ones to mention. It is a tie between "Be it a grain of sand or a rock - They both sink" and "Revenge is good for your health, but Pain will find you again."

DVD Extras: Commentary, Multiple Deleted Scenes, Interview with director, Still Gallery, and Trailers from Tartan Asia Extreme.

Bottom Line: You will be entranced while following the plot and pleasantly shocked the surprise ending. I will be seeking out Park's other work as well and I suggest you do the same.

Rating: 8.5/10

Molly Celaschi
[..]MySpace.com/HorrorYearboo


Thelonious!
 	An absolutely wonderful film by Clint Eastwood. Thelonious was an amazing man. He said things on the piano that we wordsmiths aren't able to communicate. His unusual character made for an interesting subplot. This film is footage of the man himself, usually playing his music. I'm just sitting here being stunned.


Thin Man is ageless
 	The Thin Man movies were funny and sophisticated when they came out and remain so.  It seems rare today to find such rich dialogue.


Great Movies! Great Price!
 	Anchor Bay has come through again with this wonderful set of Paul Verhoeven's early films. All of the transfers are top-notch and the subtitles are very clear and concise. As the individual titles have already been reviewed seperately, the big draw to this collection is being able to collect all of these brilliant films for much less than their retail price. The collectible booklet that's included provides plot summaries and quotes from the director and/or cast member(s). Overall, I highly recommend this collection for even the casual filmgoer who is looking for that unique film experience


Beware the Glue Man
 	The tale starts out with a historical reference to Chaucer.  For a fraction you wonder if you are watching the film you expected. And then you see the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger eagle that transitions us form mid-evil times to present day (1944) England.

Time is taken to give depth and background to all the main characters by the use of interactive dialog. We find that each brings different technical skills and interpretations of the road to Canterbury:

U.S. Army Sergt. Bob Johnson (U.S. Sergeant John Sweet) on his way to Canterbury mistakenly gets off in the hamlet of Kent. He is accused of having his stripes on upside down.

British Sgt. Peter Gibbs (Dennis Price) is temporarily stationed at Kent while staging for overseas. He was and theater organ player before the war.

Alison Smith (Sheila Sim) a London store clerk before the war is now seeking a job as a `Land Girl'. She seems to have an uncanny knowledge of Kent and the Pilgrims' road to Canterbury.

The night they got off the train at Kent they had a strange encounter with the mysterious "Glue Man".  Then befriended by the local magistrate, Thomas Colpeper, JP (Thomas Colpeper, JP). Mr. Colpeper is interested in the history of the Pilgrims' Road from Kent to Canterbury.

Until you get pretty much through this story you are never really sure where they are trying to take you.  Is the focus on a local mystery? The interaction of the players or the lives of the characters themselves?

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Be sure to get the Criterion version with the second DVD. The main item besides the film is the voice over commentary by film historian Ian Christie which will rival the film for entertainment and after watching you may want to give the film that other star.


Excellent, insightful, troubling, beautiful, inspiring....
 	One of the best movies I have seen!!! The subject itself forces you to look at your own limitations on anything that is out of your 'normal' boundaries. After watching this movie, you have a better insight on how limited most of us are and how this causes a lot more harm than we think it does.
In terms of film quality, it is also one of the best I have seen. The actors are tremendous, the characters are so accurately portrayed that you actually feel the pain of each one of them. Of course, Ludovic's innocence is rendered beautifully, but the changes that the mother goes through are very emotionally charged (maybe because I am a mother myself???). She seems at first to be the most understanding of all when it comes to her son's differences, then goes through a confusion stage, and then tries really hard to understand him. But when her family's whole life setting (house, husband's job, social life) goes havoc, she closes down emotionally on her own son which is extremely painful to watch. After one final emotionally violent confrontation with Ludovic, she realizes that she's loosing him and finally sees him the way it should be: her beautiful child, nothing more, nothing less.
It is also filmed in a very colorful manner (especially during Ludovic's escapes into dreamland), which accentuate the notion of Ludovic's innocence. The neighborhood setting seems to be a bit of a caricature of American suburbia (green front lawns, barbecue parties) with an European flavor (adults dancing at neighborhood parties). In any case, the movie seems to make a clear statement that intolerance seems to be most prominent in middle-class white surburban populations, which many could find this to be a bit of a stereotype.
In any case, I highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants something more out of movie than what is presented in mainstream movies.


And Now For Something Completely Hilarious
 	Monty Python are probably the best known sketch comedian ever. They made a tv show, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and several hilarious movies.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
Their first movie, which is a collection of their best skits from their tv show. This movie is hilarious. It includes The Lumberjack Song, The Dead Parrot Sketch, The Dirty Fork, and the World Funniest Joke.

MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL
Their best movie. It's about Arthur and his knights looking for the Holy Grail. This movie will make you laugh insanely. Funny moments include The Killer Rabbit, The Knights Who Say Ni, and The Black Knight.

THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN
This movie is not a Monty Python film but was made by Terry Gilliam and co-stars Eric Idle, both of whom are former Pythons.
A must have for any Monty Python fan.

This set deserves the five stars and more. I recommend this to any Monty Python fan, British Comedy fan, or comedy fan in general. Too bad it didn't inlude The Meaning Of Life or Life Of Brian


Former Cast Member
 	I spent ten years working various scenes at the Trinity Church Hellhouse.  Yes, it is a bit campy, and yes, it is often over the top, but I can say that the people are well intentioned, just a bit off target.  I attended Trinity Church from birth until I was 22 years old.  I do not attend their anymore because of the close-minded attitude that is prevalant in this documentary.  I stopped doing HellHouse when they added the decision room my last year.  I just felt it was an un-biblical  scare tactic.  I now feel that way about the entire operation.  The worst feeling I get is knowing the young teenagers are blindly following the leadership without doing any research themselves.  I know because I was once one of them.  I have found that a growing number of former Trinity Youth Group members my age do not attend there for the same reasons I listed above.  This movie will open your eyes to the way teens are herded like cattle in fundamentalist Christian Churches.


One Time Just Isn't Enough
 	This is a movie you'll want to watch over again--a number of times for a number of reasons.  For one, you'll want to catch all the laughs that flew by too quick on the first go-round (perhaps the second and third go-round, too, and even beyond).  As the legend goes, with the exception of a few brief, well-timed breathers, director Howard Hawks has the actors assailing us with about 240 words for each of this film's sleek 92 minutes, with the jokes sometimes launched from multiple conversations at once.

I agree with the Amazon review: you'll also want to give the movie at least one look devoted exclusively to Cary Grant's performance as master-manipulator news chief Walter Burns.  One can only marvel at his hair-trigger, incendiary reactions to each situational development.  The big scoop involves the politically-driven gallows sentence of a meek little "anarchist" (John Qualen) alleged to have killed a black cop, and while ferociously tracking the story, Burns chats up and tries to reclaim his ace reporter, Hildy Johnson.

The movie is based on Hecht and MacArthur's long-running Broadway hit The Front Page.  An early talk-era version had been produced already for the silver screen, but Hawks decided his inspired idea of switching Hildy's gender to that of a woman justified another remake.  He was right: of the various stage and film renditions, His Girl Friday is regarded as the most powerful and effective use of the source material.

Handed this basic premise, scriptwriter Charles Lederer added one last layer of complexity: Hildy Johnson is not just any woman, but Walter Burns's ex-wife.  As the action begins, she is bidding the chaotic, cynical, wise-cracking reporter's life farewell, having decided to settle down and marry an insurance man named Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy, perfect as the earnest, slow-witted foil to Grant).

On hearing this, Burns hatches his plot.  If he can pull off the entire stunt, he will beat the competition to a story on local corruption.  By getting Hildy involved again, and helping her realize the Hawksian principle that "you are what you do," he will also regain a writer of rare talent.  These two goals alone would be enough to keep his motivation interesting.  But of course the chance to win back his ex-wife brings a sexy tension to the frantic, lunatic action.

The one thing you have to do is reserve a viewing strictly for watching Rosalind Russell as Hildy.  In the part that literally no one wanted (Jean Arthur, Claudette Colbert, Irene Dunne and Carole Lombard all turned it down), Russell succeeds in making His Girl Friday her movie.  Among her colleagues in the press room (played by a sterling ensemble of character actors), she's got the hard-nosed wit to sound right at home with the boys.  At the same time, she stands out--not just in her bold pinstriped outfits, but with her unflagging dedication to the raw, key-punching grind of the professional "news man."  When necessary she dashes from telephone to telephone, one raging conversation to the next, yet in the movie's moment of high pathos, she manages to be absoltuely riveting while barely raising her voice above a whisper.  Finally, of course, her kinetic scenes with Grant are what earn this movie its reputation as one of the fastest, funniest zingers ever produced.

My sole warning: fork over the dough for Columbia's authorized release.  The cheap-o's--and there are several on the market--are pretty shabby in terms of image and sound quality.  With so much re-watching in your future, do what it takes to get the best version


Mind trip  and  sensual candy!  Intelligent metaphors  and  character analogies!  Stunning, vibrant colors!
 	I don't usually like romance films, but 2046 is brilliant!

A mind trip AND sensual candy!

If you have a short attention span, you will not appreciate this work of art.  But if the first half draws you in, the second half will BLOW YOUR MIND!

Wong Kar Wai sets up analogies between the relationships of each character.  By comparing characters in this way, we are given infinite perspectives on the characters and their emotions.

This is genius!

This is art!

Full of colorful symbolism


In the 5 best movies ...
 	i have ever seen.What to say for this film.Great acting,great story and great music.Don't hesitate go get it.This will be one of the gems in your movie collection.
And please guys when you come to movies like this masterpiece don't give them a 3 star rate.Not beacuse it didn't have many extras or something like this.The movie is that counts


watched in Health Class
 	I watched this movie in health class during a unit on ageing.  The movies was very touching, and turned the whole class to tears.  But, it was a great movie that was very touching, and I would suggest watching it


inspirational
 	I was very inspired by the interview with Michale Flately. My family enjoyed the shows on the DVD as well. It was definately worth buying


The most geniously funny show I have encountered
 	If you have ever come across a Home Movies episode, maybe at about 3 am on Comedy Central, hopefully you immediately recognized the transcendent hilarity and quickly began devoting the rest of your life to enjoying more episodes.  If that did not happen, buy the Season 3 dvd's because Brendan Small is just immensely funny and enjoyable.  The Renaissance Fair episode is unbelievable


NOT A BAD FILM AT ALL
 	There were loads of Swords  and  Sorcery films coming out in the 80's, most of them low budget garbage.  But this was actually one of the better films.  It had a lot wrong with it, but it had enough good to make it enjoyable.  Richard Lynch is Cromwell who plots against the throne, takes power as the young prince Talon (lee Horsley) eventually will grow up to challenge the tyrant.  Pretty standard stuff.  But it's exectuted well.  The opening is stolen directly from Robert E. Howard's Conan Story "The Hour of the Dragon" as Cromwell and his conspirators, including a witch, find an ancient tomb and revive a powerful, ancient sorcerer.  In the Conan story the sorcerer's name was Zaltotun.  In this movie, the name is Xusia.  Mere coincidence?  I think not.  But Xusia is played well be the towering Richard Moll (of Night Court fame).  He's suitably imposing and evil, as he quickly tears the heart out of the witch who helped restore him to life.  Unfortunately Xusia doesn't get enough screen time.

Lynch always does a good job in the role of the villain and does so here, too.  Horsley plays his role clearly more influenced by Errol Flynn in Robin Hood than by Conan.  He's a fun-loving reveling rogue leading a band of rogues hoping to take back the throne.  He is eventually captured and Cromwell has him nailed to a cross, although it's an "X" cross so as to not upset anyone with religious symbolism.  Again, this is a scene lifted from a Conan story "A Witch Shall be Born" when Conan was nailed to a cross.  Only Conan had to be rescued by desert raiders while Talon, actually pulls the nails out of his own hands and gets up to fight immediately.  Now, I'm no doctor but I'm guessing that someone who had a 4" nail driven through their palms is NOT going to be able to pickup and handle a sword but, ok, it's fantasy so I'll buy it.

Still, despite some shortcomings, this is an enjoyable little diversion.  The ending Credits even gave the title of a sequel which never materialized


A Friend's Photo
 	The technical quality of the DVD is excellent.  My interest in the movie is the result of seeing a photo on a friend's wall of Charlie Chaplin and an actor.  The actor, Hugh Sasson, was the Uncle of my friend's mother.  He appears early in the movie as the person who has his pocket picked.  The photo is the shot in front of the hot dog stand when the victim sees the tramp paying for a hot dog out of his wallet.  We set the photo on the TV and stepped through this scene on the DVD one frame at a time.  It gave us all goose bumps as somehow the extreme slow motion made them seem alive in real time.
Additionally, the story of the production difficulties found on disk 2 are fascinating


Highly recommended
 	"Mighty Quinn" features a young sexy Denzel Washington (Xavier Quinn) as a smart detective who did a stint with the FBI and returns home as police chief on a Carribbean island. There's a shadowy plot involving $10,000 bills, a guerilla movement and guns, but the movie focuses more on Quinn's conflicts because his childhood friend is suspected of a grisly murder, and Quinn's own discomfort from having "made good" but ending up caught between two worlds, white and black. He's also caught between the islanders' desire to protect their own and white political pressure to drop the investigation. This film is full of sexy island women, colorful reggae music, and real world dilemmas of race and identity. No matter that we couldn't quite figure out if the plot hung together. A winner


If we would be taking life as seriously as you....
 	... then this would be a really serious detective. As it's executed now, it's a superbly relaxed copper-gets-the-villain with serious undertones. Cool


funny
 	my brother bought a used copy at wal mart and I decided to borrow it despite him saying it was stupid. It isn't. It's actually real funny and entertaining.


Please Release the Other Seasons on DVD
 	This animation is as hilarious as when it was first aired, maybe even more so as the careers of some of those who sat on the good doctor's couch have blossomed eg David Cross, who you may remember from such shows as Arrested Development. Even Ray Romano is funny. The animation is great, especially the New York City scenes. Ben Katz is a scene stealer. I need to see 'Feng Shui' and 'Sticky Notes' on DVD please.


It's MOOG... nothing else needs saying!
 	If you are at all interested in synthesizers, their impact on the music world, and how the Moog synthesizer changed history, this is a 'must have'.

I just wish I had bought my copy and had Bob autograph it before he passed away. I did go to his memorial service... a little late, I admit. But this DVD gives so much insight into the realm of the synth. There's a fair amount of footage from the 50th anniversary event "Moogfest" at BB King's in NYC, in May of 2004. I attended that show, and was just one table from the stage, right in front of Keith Emerson and his monster-moog. There is also some segments of Bob and Rick Wakeman back stage (It was Rick Wakeman's birthday).

Anyway- good stuff... I would buy it if I were you. I AM me, and I DID buy it, and I'm not sorry!


A modest yet very entertaining movie
 	I first saw "Dragonslayer" when it originally came out in theaters back in 1981.  It was the first VHS movie I ever purchased.  It's very well made, an engaging story with interesting characters that you care about. It still holds up. Caitlin Clarke's performance is the heart and soul of the film and she does a great job.  I wrote her when the film came out telling her as much, and received a hand-written thank you letter.  I learned recently that she passed away from cancer in 2004.  "Dragonslayer" has action, humor, humanity, political irony.  And if none of those matter to you: it's just plain fun


Dragonslayer
 	Good movie with a unique storyline.  Special effects were very
good for the time of filming


New England Wire  and  Cable
 	Other People's Money is a wonderful movie, full of smart dialogue, good music, and a terrific Danny DeVito performance.   DeVito is his usual funny, and easy-going self, while Gregory Peck is a strong-willed patriarch.  Very good stuff there.  The weakest performance is from Penelope Ann Miller, who isn't really convincing as the corporate attorney, but the material is so good that it saves the movie.  This is a 5 star film, however, it loses a 1/2 star, because of the last scene, which feels a bit tacked on.  Otherwise, a smart and funny film from the director of Moonstruck


Good supplement to my regular routine
 	I bought a balance ball kit from another location, but wanted a more complete workout than the sampler that came with the kit.  I like the workout a lot and I think it will be a good strengthening and toning tool.  I like that there is a separate relaxation workout for stress relief and I like that the workout cycles through the different body parts


Unpretentious fun!
 	The great thing about the Naruto series is it has an involved, ongoing storyline without taking itself too seriously. The episodes are well translated and the actors well chosen. It has some suspense and alot of comedy and for older children it has a nice message of never giving up on your dreams.

My small gripes are that for some reason Naruto has the catch phrase of "Believe it!", and it gets dropped into places that it doesn't make any sense, but it's a small problem.

Also the extras you get are really fun and high quality. This is a great package for the hardcore fan and newcomer alike


DIS IS IT
 	What do you know about being underground? Get this if you really suck at djing


Entertaining Murder Mystery  and  Impressive Early Example of Noir Visual Style.
 	"I Wake Up Screaming" was the first film noir made at 20th Century Fox. Its greatest distinction is its visual style whose low-key lighting and dark shadows would become archetypal of film noir after World War II. Cinematographer Edward Cronjager created a striking early example of "noir" lighting -what John Alton appropriately called "mystery lighting"- in this film made in 1941, before the United States entered the War. The story is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen Fisher, adapted for the screen by Dwight Taylor, who moved the action to New York, gave it a flashback structure, and turned it into one of those hybrids so common in pre-War Hollywood that combines multiple genres: Mystery, romance, musical (the singing scene was cut), comedy, suspense, and psychological drama. But the suspense does dominate.

When model and aspiring actress Vicky Lynn (Carole Landis) is murdered, the police are quick to blame Frankie Christopher (Victor Mature), a fight promoter who met Vicky when she was a waitress, introduced her to all the right people, and managed her ascent to glamour girl -until she left him for Hollywood. Vicky's down-to-earth sister Jill (Betty Grable) disapproved of her career choice but doesn't want to believe Frankie responsible for her death. The Assistant District Attorney thinks early on that the creepy switchboard operator (Elisha Cook, Jr.) at the Lynns' apartment building is the killer, but sadistic police detective Ed Cornell (Laird Cregar) won't let up on Frankie, constantly harassing and threatening him, leaving Frankie little choice but to find the killer himself.

"I Wake Up Screaming" opens with an eyecatching credit sequence of names in lights sprawled across a dark cityscape. That got my attention. Then we move on to an interrogation room at the police station. Frankie Christopher is harshly lit with one lamp, surrounded by police officers in the shadows. Gorgeous, dramatic, low-key lighting. The faces of some characters, even Frankie, are sometimes completely blacked out. I don't know if that is due to a film with limited tonal range or if it's deliberate. But it's daring. Everywhere we go in the station house, there are bars and shadows. The implication that the characters are trapped as if in a cage is overwhelming. The police station is like a template for film noir aesthetic. This really surprised me in such an early film, but it's fabulous.

This was Betty Grable's first non-musical role. She's all sweetness and goodness, but she is also level-headed, practical, and brave in the mold of a film noir helper-heroine. Unfortunately, every time she appears on screen we hear "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", which eventually drove me a little nuts. Victor Mature makes a strong and appealing protagonist. But the stand-out performance comes from Laird Cregar as the very creepy, obsessed police detective Cornell. He's truly unsettling and one of the most memorable noir villains. The dialogue isn't hard-boiled except for a few lines delivered by Vicky. But "I Wake Up Screaming" is a superb example of the film noir style as it was entering Hollywood's visual vocabulary.

The DVD (20th Century Fox 2006):  A few scenes show some white specks and lines, but this print is generally good. Sound is good. Bonus features: A deleted scene called "Daddy" (4 min), in which Betty Grable sings. This doesn't fit the tone of the movie well, so it was best left out. "Hot Spot" (text) is a brief account of the film's title change from "I Wake Up Screaming" to "Hot Spot" and back again. We can watch the opening credits for the film with the "Hot Spot" title (1 min). There are 3 "Still Galleries": A Poster Gallery (3 posters), a Production Stills Gallery of behind-the-scenes photos (8), and a Unit Photography Gallery of publicity stills (38 photos). It's interesting to note that scenes are much more brightly lit in the publicity stills than in the movie itself. There is a theatrical trailer (2 min). Film noir historian Eddie Muller delivers a good, nearly constant audio commentary. He compares the screenplay to Steven Fisher's novel, provides background information for many of the creative crew and actors, discusses the noir visual style and the juxtaposition of light and dark thematic elements in the film. Muller speaks a lot about the people involved in the film, as always. Subtitles for the film are available in English and Spanish


A Cunning Coming-Out Charmer With a Trio of Winning Female Performances
 	First-time feature director/screenwriter Alice Wu's 2005 indie comedy has familiar movie themes running all through it, but it is still an unexpected charmer with its laconic storytelling, unforced humor and a trio of winning performances. With a conflicted protagonist at its core, the film shares the same souffl�-light rom-com territory as Ol Parker's half-hearted "Imagine Me and You" and Ian Iqbal Rashid's overly cute "A Touch of Pink". Wu, however, manages to bring a less derivative style to her venture due to the unique cultural subtext and more importantly, because her script unspools the fates of the main characters in meticulous vignettes.

The plot focuses on Wil, short for Wilhelmina, an obviously talented Manhattan-based surgical resident who has kept herself closeted from her traditional Chinese family living across the East River in Flushing. Referred to just as "Ma" in the story, her mother is a widowed beautician, who only speaks Mandarin to her daughter and keeps flinging potential suitors at her. Wil's eyes, nevertheless, are set squarely on a comely ballerina named Vivian, who happens to be the daughter of Wil's supervising surgeon at the hospital. Meantime, Ma is in her own pickle as she finds herself pregnant and subsequently ejected from the family home. Ma moves in with Wil, and the inevitable consequences ensue. There are affecting moments of lightness and gravitas throughout, but much of the charm of the film comes naturally from the three leads.

As Wil, Michelle Krusiec is a terrific find, evoking the simmering turmoil of her situation in unexpected ways even when the script fails her at times. Lynn Chen is saucy and inviting as Vivian, though I wish we could have seen one scene where she dances onstage since such a strong point is made on what style she wants to pursue. Both actresses make the attraction between the characters palpable, culminating in the inevitable girl-on-girl scene. Despite the beauty of her younger co-stars, Joan Chen is almost too gorgeous to be playing such an emotionally constrained character. Even though her character is supposed to be closing in on fifty, Chen is just 43 and frankly looks ensconced in her thirties, making her the rare case of looking far younger at the end of the movie than at the beginning. Yet, she is able to convey the necessary brittle, distanced manner as Ma, making her character's self-discovery process more rewarding.

The ending is on the pat side, especially a silly multiple confessional at a wedding and a wedged-in riff on "The Graduate", but it doesn't compromise the sweet-natured charm of the piece. Special mention should go to Harlan Bosmajian's cinematography, which captures the saturated colors found in the Chinese-American community. The 2005 DVD contains Wu's thoughtful commentary on a separate track, as well as several deleted scenes, a standard, ten-minute making-of featurette and a rather dull Sundance video diary


One of the most well done movies ever
 	Scenes from a Marriage is a Swedish film by Ingmar Bergman. To me, this is one of the best films ever. It not only captures a great story, but it is done so well.
What makes the movie so great is that you can relate to how they feel, act, and generally take care of issues.
This isn't one of those American films where a person breaks off with someone and they start yelling and throwing objects at them.
In here, as he is telling his wife about this other lover, she is without emotions, just staring off, with no real reactions whatsoever, a way most would respond.
This is basically a 3 or 5 hour film about a wife who believes their marriage is great/perfect. It is later that she finds outs that perhaps, the marriage isn't so great when she listens to a patient decribe her marriage and why she wants a divorce.
There, the wife wants to plan a trip with her husband and try to improve their marriage. He later says he's been with a woman for a while now, and shortly there after, leaves her.
After a year of so, they get together to sign the divorce papers, which turns out rough at the end.
After some time, they get together again, and in some way, fall in love once again, even though both are married to other people.
There, the movies ends.
Great film! Hard to watch some american films now, because most just seem horrible, and in ways, corny. I'm glad I got to see a great film like this.


We Want MORE Spider-Man!!!
 	A lot of people like me who watches superhero movies want to watch a whole bunch of action with soo much CGI you cant even tell what's real or not. Anyways, I expected this movie to have the too much action I can handle. Guess I was wrong. Don't get me wrong, I like this movie, but I just hope Spidey 3 will have tons of action!!!!!!!! And Tons of CGI EFFECTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!With 3 NEW VILLAINS!!!!!! WHOO HOO!!!!!!!! SANDMAN, HOBGOBLIN, and VENOM!!!!!!!!! Anwyays, just don't make the movie about Peter Parker, but Spider-Man, THANK YOU Stan Lee for creating Spider-man


an intellegent, unapreciated gem. starring my two favorite actresses Carla Gugino  and  Catherine Bell
 	Threshold starring Carla Gugino (Special guest Catherine Bell episode #11 Outbreak):
i loved this show. i liked it when it was on CBS and i like it even more now that i got the dvd's with the unaired shows to at least try to bring it to some sense of a conclusion.
Carla Gugino was very good (as usual)playing a strong woman named Dr. Molley Anne Caffrey a contingency analayst who's job it is to come up with worst case scenarios for any natural or man-made disaters. (earthquake,hurricanes, WWIII, epidemics, worldwide finacial depression) you get the picture. the one she is called upon for is for a scenario named "Threshold" (hence the name of the show). Threshold - is the contengency plan for alien invasion. her job is now to put the plan in motion. to quickly assemble a team made up of a physian, a mathmatican/linguist, an areonautics engineer and navy seal whose job it is to implement the orders she gives out usually via military force or other covert means and to protect the "Red Team". and asscess the threat and plan how to stop the threat.
the actors who played the other members on Molly's team were all good and i believed and cared for them all. but this review is about Carla and Catherine so i will get to the point.
Carla owned the show, she carried it off just like she did in "Karen Sisco"
she told a great story and added importance to a very well done show. i really do believe she is one of the best and underrated actresses in the business today. and she was just stunningly beautiful. every time she was on camera you could not help but to focus on her. the camera loved her. the beauty made you look her way. but the acting, the way she carried herself. made you stay focused on her.
Catherine Bell was on the episode "Outbreak" this episode was about about how Molly and her team discovered that one of the ways the aliens could spread and infect people was through the food supply. now they already knew this a few episodes before but, they thought they took care of it, but they were wrong. Molley needed to know exactly how they spread it, to what foods and how long did it take effect on people who ate it. so she basically drafted Catherine Bell and made her apart of the team whether she wanted to or not.
Catherine Bell played Dr. Daphene Larsons. an expert on Botony and Biology. who figured out that some foods were more likely to get it and that it was mainly tomatos and food like it that they need to worry about. i'm afraid Catherine did not get much to work with here and she was only on it for that epsiode and only mentioned it the rest. i was told that had the show been picked up and went the next year she would have been a full blown cast member.
But Catherine - like Carla - was stunningly beautiful. however she does not have the same presence as Carla does when she on camera. she did a good job - but she had next to nothing to work with and there was no essence within her or her character's personality that took over when you got over her looks as opposed to Carla when she was on. Carla was on her game and stayed on it. it was her show. Catherine did the best she could with what little she had, she was not on her game. but it wasn't her show.
Carla and Catherine had really no interaction together. the only one they kinda had was when Molly was briefing Daphene on Threshold and the story thus far. and that was done with Daphine sitting in a chair looking confused and over-whelmed while Molly stood in front of her and explained it all. and it was all done using cross fade and fade in-outs edits. i appreciated the effects - nice touch - but i would have liked to see some real dialogue there. i'm pretty sure had there been an episode 14 they would have done something together like i don't know; kick some alien butt together or Kissed.
in conclusion - i loved the show. then tension kept me going and seemed real.
it wasn't neardy and though it was ScFi, i really did'nt get that feeling. there was more to the story, it was intellegently done and i wanted more. but they cancelled it. the last epsiode did however give it some closeuer so you don't feel too cheated buying one season of the show. it left you having enough questions as to where you wanted to see more, but, could still come up with your own conclusions. they ended it like they could add more to the story at a later date in a form of a movie or another show but if they never do. then i guess it is still okay.
the show was supposed to last three years going in accordance to Molly's scernario:
1. Threshold - we have spotted and accessed the threat.
2. Foothold - they have established themselves on earth. we have notified the public and began to stop them by any means necessary. (Probably what season 2 would have been called.
3. Stranglehold - if it get to this point it either means we have stopped them and sent them home or they have won and anhilated us. (Season three title i suppose.)
she never came up with a 4th stage. i guess it would be pointless.


Potentially Promising; Hence Its Sudden Suffocation
 	CBS's THRESHOLD held the promise of a good science-fiction thriller; however regardless of it's interesting story premise, good acting, and well supported production team, it, like NBC's "SURFACE" and ABC's "INVASION", was cancelled.  Although I considered it the weakest of the three mentioned, it alone was told before production ended, it was not being re-newed; hence, it had just enough time to provide an adequate series finale and why I rated it 4 vice 3 stars.

Was it cancelled because the plot was flimsy or dumb?  Possibly, but it did offer better tv viewing than many of the boob tube's "reality" shows and less than funny comedies.

Was it cancelled because it lacked character depth and good acting?  Maybe, but Carla Gugino (Molly), Charles Dutton (Blaylock), Brent Spiner(Fenway), Rob Benedict (Lucas), Peter Dinklage (Ramsey), and Brian Holt (Cavennaugh) did a very good job trying to provide three dimensions to their characters.  Sadly, they didn't have the opportunity to finish the job.

Was it cancelled because it didn't get the support it needed from the folks behind the scenes?  Arguably, but the team did offer some great visuals, interesting plotlines, and nightmare scenarios.

So why was this potentially promising series suddenly suffocated?  Probably because it cost too much money and the average television viewer doesn't appreciate a good story takes time to develop (The X-Files, Alias, 24, Law  and  Order, CSI, Smallville, Numbers, etc.).

Is it worth buying or renting? Yes.  Though a cancelled series, it has that one thing most of it's one season wonders don't have--an adequate conclusion that doesn't leave you wondering how a cliff-hanger is to be resolved


Awsome!
 	Don't be fooled by stupid commercials that make this movie look inappropriate or like soap operas.  This movie is awsome and not at all about the guys chasing the girls, inappropriate behavior, or anything.  It's definitely worth seeing and watching again.  Great movie


Challenging and fun workout!-
 	An excellent total body toning workout by two motivating (and non-annoying) instructors. This is a perfect workout to add to any workout regime. Highly recommend this


Uniquely Talented
 	I've been encouraged by Pat Metheny's music since 1980... that's a long time to follow one guy's music track, but through it all he has always grown and done more than you would expect. His trio record set the standard in the early days, with Bright Size Life (w. Jaco and Bob Moses), and his PMG work has been unusual and different and refreshing. One reviewer mentions "cheesy tunes" - in what sense? In the sense that they don't conform to a rigid set of jazz sounds that we've come to expect (swing+sax+trumpet+upright bass + x y and z=jazz)? Great jazz musicians are innovators, and what PMG has done consistently through its life and continues to do is to create it's own genre of music unto itself - completely unique. Are you going to find 14 other groups sounding like this? No way. Not even one. I know cheesy music when I hear it, and there are plenty of so-called mainstream jazz artists that are guilty of it in addition to the usual suspects. Most jazz musicians will be remembered as that guy or gal that sounded kind of like Miles or kind of like Coltrane or Brecker or whatever. The great ones are the ones others are compared TO, and Pat Metheny falls in that category.

If you are open-minded to creative music and want to enjoy great musicians at the top of their game, creating art together as a team listening well and bringing fresh new ideas to life, then buy or rent this DVD. If you want to hear what one kid from Missouri who was by age 15 determined to play with Gary Burton (and he did) was able to do with the guitar by just doggedly pursuing it year after year, creating fresh new material, taking the beauty of the guitar to new levels each and every year, then listen to this DVD and be a part of his history. Because Pat is one of the true geniuses of our age. His relationship with Lyle Mays persists to this day - what a story of loyalty working together though a lifetime.

And Pat is able to draw more talent out of his musicians than most bandleaders. A lot of jazz artists have used Richard Bona over the years as a talented fretless bass player, but Pat Metheny gave him a stage to share the whole range of his talent. He does a solo with himself and some percussion and a delay pedal that is amazing - he harmonizes with himself and creates a tapestry of sound... Cuong Vu did something similar on this DVD with his trumpet.

The drummer and bass player (Antonio Sanchez and Steve Rodby)are just on it - this is a great band. If you get a chance to hear their Austin City Limits performance, I think it is slightly better in the sense of how raw it is; this performance is more polished, and of course a lot more time was taken in the mastering of this. Both live performances are worth checking out.


SPEAKING OF SPEAKING OF NOW LIVE!
 	I FIRST WATCHED THIS INCREDIBLE GROUP OF MUSICIANS I BELIEVE ON AUSTIN CITY LIMITS AND WAS TOTALLY TAKEN IN BY THE MAGIC THESE GUYS PERFORM ALONG WITH VERY, VERY GOOD CAMERA WORK WHICH COMPLIMENTED THEIR EVERY MOVE. PAT'S FASCIALS ARE CAPTURED INTENSLY AS WELL AS ALL OF THE MUSICIANS PERFECTIONISM..
  THE PERFORMANCE IS FLAWLESS AND YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF FEELING AS IF "YOU ARE HERE".  BRAVO!!

BOBBY GEE, FLORIDA
NCPD2@MSN.CO


Stott Fit and Firm
 	I've been doing Pilates for several months along w/ my daily Yoga practice and it's been an incredible and effective addition to my program!

 At this point I have collected about 17 Pilates programs (along w/ my 90 Yoga programs) and there are certain teachers that have shone above the rest. For me Moira Stott is one of those special teachers that has a way of communicating so clearly and putting together such sound practices that I always look forward to spending time with her programs.

 I had purchased the four DVD pack w/ "Basics", "Fit and Firm", "Secret to Flat Abs" and "Sculpt and tone", and just this morning did "Fit and Firm" for the first time. For someone brand new to Pilates I HIGHLY recommend the "Basics" DVD, it's the single best beginners DVD/VHS I've worked with since starting Pilates.

 As always Moira starts with detailed explanations and warm ups and with the help of a student who demonstrates beautifully, leads you through a wonderful, well paced pilates practice.

 This practice basically follows the intermediate Pilates series with some additional advanced poses added in as well. It's about  45 minutes long but flows so beautifully that the time really flies by.

 Some people find Moria Stott to be dry or boring, but I find her to be a pleasure to practice with. Perhaps because I'm from a Yoga background (daily for the past nine years) I'm used to teachers who are less "rah rah" (I also don't like blaring music when I'm practicing Yoga or Pilates)so Moira's approach fits me well. If you like teachers who have a more hyper "in your face" personality then this may not be a good fit for you. But if you want a teacher who knows her stuff and who will guide you in a way that is sound and effective then Moira Stott is someone you will truly appreciate on so many levels.

 Other teachers whose teaching style I really enjoy are Hilary Burnett (her Intermediate program is incredible) and Jennifer Kries.

 I also like Ana Caban and Michelle Dozois for variety in my practice.

 Highly recommended!


A wonderfull Christmas film the entire family can watch together and LAUGH
 	I really ejoyed this film.I can't wait to watch it again.This Christmas flick has a great angle,and a wonderfull ending.I always liked the traditional holiday movies,"White Christmas,Holiday Inn," now "Surviving Christmas" is included


I loved it.
 	I loved watching this when I was younger and my daughter loves it now. I actually bought this because she wanted it for her 10th birthday


Great Video
 	This is a fantastic Keith Urban video.  My favorites would undoubtedly be "Somebody Like You," and "Raining On Sunday." I wondered why Keith wasn't barefooted in the "Where the Blacktop Ends" video :) even so it's a great DVD worth adding to your collection! My only disappointment was that there wasn't a video of "You'll Think of Me.


Season 2 is here!
 	Hey Pizanos! It's the Super Mario Bros Super show! Sound familiar to you? If it does, great! That just means that your ready for season two of The Super Mario Bros Super show. Mario, Luigi, and Toad are back to save Princess Toadstool and themselves out of the evil King Koopa's hands. There are all of the remaining episodes on this disc except for four. I understand that Shout faught Dic for the remaining four with no success. Go figure. Oh well. You atleast get to see the other episodes on all of these discs with no audio problems as mentioned for season one. There are also special features on all four DVD's to play around with. Want to look at the outline for how the idea for the set came about? Take a basement tour! See how the creators met Lou Albano, plus more! Everybody get ready to do the Mario and go back to your child hood and watch the good guys win and triaumph over the evil forces of King Bowser Koopa.


EXCELLENT!
 	Definitely a great movie, Rules of Engagement, brings to the screen two stories as they unfold simultaneously; that of a military investigation into whether an officer in the Marines was in violation of the code of conduct during an incident in Yemen, and the inner struggle of the investigator/defence lawyer as he tries to come to terms with his past and the ghosts that have been haunting him ever since Vietnam....
The film combines drama, action and adventure making it one of the best of its kind.
Needless to say, Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel Jackson, and the rest of the cast have truly outdone themselves with their performances, which are outstanding to say the least!  All the actors, without exceptions, give it their 100% and it really shows (the chemistry is AMAZING)!
The plot, the setting, the dialogues, the special effects, and the music are all wonderful!
In short, it is a movie definitely worth watching and one to seriously consider adding to your movie collection (if you haven't already done so)!!  Strongly recommended along with Black Hawk Down, A Few Good Men, and Courage Under Fire.


Totally believable.
 	Unlike Marshall Fine,who wrote the Amazon review, I don't find the subplot in this movie hard to swallow at all!  Sadly, politically I believe many of our fine military personnel have been sacrificed through the years for political agenda, and I am not just talking about recently.  I am sure there are flaws in the movie, but I wasn't watching the movie for flaws.  Truthfully, military movies are not my favorite genre.  Having said that, I found myself up very late one night and "happened upon" this fine movie. I was mesmerized.  Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson were brilliant, but it was the short segment with the former officer in the North Vietnamese Army that riveted my attention more than any other scene.  Just brilliant!   I can't say more or I will spoil it for anyone who has not seen it.  Needless to say, I give it 5 stars because it is a movie that made me think, one I will talk about in years to come.  That's a barometer for my star-meter!


Overhyped cult film finally makes good.
 	I'd seen this film before, in a lesser unrestored edition, and wasn't that impressed. Sure there's some over-the-top moments worth a chuckle or two, but the majority of the film is pretty leaden and dull. Hardly the unintentional laugh riot it's reputed to be.

Thanks to Mike Nelson's biting commentary, however, now the film really is funny. Damn funny. Which is why I demand we pass legislation, the sooner the better, requiring Mike Nelson commentaries on every major DVD release from here on out. He may be Hollywood's last best hope, the only man who can save excrement like Mission Impossible 3 and Lady in the Water from heading straight to the bargain racks.

(Okay, maybe I'm overrating Mike's abilities just a bit - nothing short of an Old Testament-style miracle could scrape the stink off of Lady in the Water - but if Lucas gave him a crack at Episodes 1-3, I think we'd be looking at pure marketing gold. C'mon Lucas, you know you can't resist any excuse to re-release yet another DVD version of your little sci-fi sextology. Give the man a call.


Pink n Purple smoke, Mike Nelson, and Grandpa Ganja
 	OK folks, this is by far one of the best DVDs I've bought in quite awhile. You get so much for so little. First you get the original black and white movie. Reefer Madness is like the Three Stooges, black and white just adds to its charm. But to see it in color is quite a hoot. The smoke is purple and pink, the suits and dresses are LOUD, and the color scheme for Mae's apartment is just mind boggling. What more could you ask for? Well you get more anyway.

When I discovered that Mike Nelson from MST3000 fame actually had narrating duty, I just had to buy Reefer Madness again. He's hilarious. Sure it would have been great for his two robot buddies to join in, but who knows, maybe someday. Mike was right on the ball and I laughed out loud quite a few times. I never noticed before how much time the dope dealer spent making meals and eating.

Well if that wasn't enough, we also get a short 15 minute film starring Grandpa Ganja. He's a marijuana expert who's been smoking pot for over 30 years. He quotes weed from the Bible, convincingly explains how Moses was a major dopehead, and also the disciples. Not only do we get an indepth history on marijuana, he demonstrates how to roll a joint, smoke a bong, and other helpful hints on how to administer medical THC. The old man is hilarious on helpful hints as to buying and growing your marijuana. When they showed the real old dude throwing marijuana seeds over his fence and then harvesting pot in his neighbor's yard I lost it. Low brow pot humor true, but in any case I laughed my butt off.

If you already have a black and white copy of Reefer Madness, it's worth buying again to have this edition. It's well worth it


Well done, don't miss it!
 	This is one of the best movies I have ever seen, it has it all; suspense, good acting, good story line, and without much violence.
The plot is interesting, it keeps you guessing, and the suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Great job Hollywood, to all involved with this film, especially
Jodi Foster


Cool Movie Deserving of Better DVD
 	Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn and a marvelous supporting cast that includes James Coburn (and a "killer" soundtrack by Henry Mancini) deserve much better treatment than they get in this no-frills DVD with absolutely no special features.

This comic murder mystery shows off its stars to their finest --in spite of a less than admirable film transfer.  It's all thanks to the great performances, tongue in cheek direction and witty screenplay.  Hopefully a better quality and enhanced DVD version will replace this one in your film library.  Nonetheless, "Charade" remains a charming and timeless classic


great fun for little ones
 	I have a little brother who is 7, and severely disabled,(He's on a 9 month old level) Not much catches his eye, but one day when he was throwing a tantrum, I put it on nick jr,and noticed he stopped crying when he heard the sound of the  singing   Backyardigans. He couldn't stop looking at the colorful animation.This show is a lifesaver! It kept him entertained for the whole 30min. I'd heard about the show from a friend,who has a 1 yr old who loves the show, and she told me to try it out. I took her advice and my brother loved it! And as soon as I saw it on VHS, I bought it.He loves "the snow fort", but his favorite is "the Yeti", He laughs the whole time the penguin sings "The Yeti Stomp". I also  bought him "It great to be a ghost" DVD  for christmas.I recommend this for any little children, it works like a charm.[^_^


Eppur si muove!
 	This is the masterpiece of atheist Spanish film director Lu�s Bu�uel. An unrelentless, devastating, unmerciful criticism of religion. Yes, it can be viewed as a social satire, a political vehicle, etc. That's what makes it a great film, that you can view it from different perspectives.

To me the most valuable aspect of this film is the opportunity to see, as in a wide canvass, the soul and mind of this great atheist man. It is revealing that Bu�uel took to the task of "proving" religion wrong and absurd with so intense passion and -I would even say- desperation. Because no one is more desperate than he who searches and can't find. But, as Unamuno would say to explain the angst of the author, it comes from seeking to believe with the reason and not with the life.

The film depicts Spain's social condition pretty accurately in those mid-century years. Unamuno explains this aspect (though he wrote decades before Bu�uel's work) as follows: "In France and Spain there are multitudes who have proceeded from rejecting Popery to absolute atheism, because 'the fact is, that false and absurd doctrines, when exposed, have a natural tendency to beget scepticism in those who received them without reflection. None are so likely to believe too little as those who have begun by believing too much.'"

Another important aspect of the film is the way he depicts the poor. Helplessly incorrigible, lacking as much in money as in human virtues, and extremely ugly and repealing. It is very curious how Bu�uel did not even allow any little space for sentimentality or candidness; I mean, there is no hero or anything even close to it. It's a terrible portrait of the human soul. I would say pessimistic, but I don't think Bu�uel would agree. He would probably prefer sincere or realistic. The symbolism is so evident that any private school kid could figure it out, so forcibly paired are the scenes with their objects of criticism. And trying to make it so evident (and not as difficult as other of his surrealistic films) evidences his intensity of feeling, his anger, his hatred of all that Bu�uel despises, religion. And not only Catholicism -it just happened to be Spain- but universal religion. Going back to the the poor in the film, Bu�uel being a communist sympathizer, it is ironic that he doesn't show even a little mercy with his poor. I think the rich young man is a more admirable figure than any of his other characters. The female protagonist, the nun who gives up her vows being used only as a tool, cannot be expected to represent all nuns or all religious persons -it would be preposterous-. A case that in real life might happen isolatedly should not be used to prove a general rule. It is dishonest. But there is a correlation between his view of the economically poor and the Christian view:

"For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always." John 12:8

Isn't there something of the same nature? So how can one conception of the poor lead Christians to love them nevertheless (knowing that they will always be around), and the furious atheist/socialist to despise them (maybe not to condemn them, because surely "society or the rich" would take the blame). Well, that question is for everybody to meditate on.

I wish people like Bu�uel would give Christ a chance. Unamuno, another great Spaniard, says: "Note the greater part of our atheists and you will see that they are atheists from a kind of rage, rage at not being able to believe that there is a God. They are the personal enemies of God." But -I say- how can you be an enemy of someone who does not exist?

However, this is a great and splendid work of art. But now, ending with a quote from Rousseau: "Where is the philosopher who would not willingly deceive mankind for his own glory? With believers he is an atheist; with atheists he would be a believer. The essential thing is to think differently from others."

Nevertheless, it moves!


Truth in advertising!
 	I ordered this after seeing Peggy on PBS doing yoga with a 97 year old woman.  I've got some lung problems and was looking for something low impact that I could do to help build my capacity.  The DVD is great and easy to follow.  Peggy breaks the session down into three parts of twenty minutes, so you can do an hour or less as your schedule indicates.  Best of all, you work from a chair, so this is truly adaptable to any age and fitness level


Wish Shania Would Stick With The Music She Does Best - Country!
 	This dvd shows Shania's potential as a serious musician. With Alison Krauss and Union Station as her back up here, she is simply riveting. Too bad she is more interested in making a quick buck these days marketing herself as a pop star and making purely pop albums like "Up!" instead of making enduring popular country classics like "The Woman In Me" and "Come On Over". Maybe she's living too well nowadays to make soulful music. Get this dvd if you want to hear Shania doing something good.

4 Stars is for the short length of this dvd. We need at least 2 hours of this awesome music. Not the 50 minutes which is on this dvd. That's only enough time to drink 5 beers


Classic Pauly Shore
 	You can't really call yourself a Pauly Shore fan unless you love Son-in-Law. And it's hard not to love this movie. Granted, it is prone to a bit of cheesiness, but this is what we both love and respect about Pauly Shore. Becca is a fresh from the farm in South Dakota, now in California at college and on her own for the first time. She misses her family and her jock boyfriend back home and feels like she doesn't fit in. But Crawl (Pauly Shore, in perfect Pauly form) her resident advisor urges her to give college life one more chance before she goes home and shows her just how much fun being on your own in a new place can be. When the holidays roll around, Crawl has nowhere to go and decides that frozen turkey dinners are just fine for Thanksgiving, but Becca insists he join her and her family in South Dakota. Crawl is the opposite of anything her family has ever seen and as if that's not enough to make things silly, Becca's boyfriend tries to propose to her, but Becca doesn't want to get married yet and Crawl announces to the family that he's already proposed to Becca. Now absolute silliness takes over and it's just so much fun from here on out. If you need something fun and funny to watch, give Son-in-Law a try. One of my all-time favorites in my collection of silly comedies. You'll love it


a hit with my son
 	my daughters ages 8 and 6 like the movie but my son who is 15 months really loves being able to watch all his Sesame Street friends in a movie


Really Good Series... Not Long Enough Though
 	Ok... this series isn't exactly like the Final Fantasy games, but the elements are there. For instance, you have chocobo's, you have cactuar's, you have the summoning of Guardian Forces (which by the way look really cool), you have character's which have too much power for their own good, and a journey. This journey is that of Ai and Yu's search for their parents, where they are accompanied by Lisa Pacifist, a woman who possesses the cool power of Kigen Arts. During their journey, they see and do many wonderous things in wonderland (I wont say anymore, I dont want to spoil too much of the plot).
I have this product rated as 4/5 stars, but actually i think there it should be 4.5/5 stars. I really enjoyed this series, but I dock it .5 points because the time length ADV gives the series to be is inadequate. They say it is total 625 minutes, where actually each episode is 22min 45 sec, thus 22.75 min * 25 = 568.75 minutes long total length of series.
Anywho, if you like final fantasy, i suggest watch this series


Next time take the bus...
 	I rented Terror Train (1980) with a friend of mine about ten years ago and I remember after we watched it we were both like "Is that it?"  Not recalling what our criticisms of the film were at the time, but I decided to give it another chance, and you know what?  I liked it...I really did...I'll grant you it's not an outstanding feature, but the effort is there, resulting in an overall solid film.  Directed by Roger Spottiswoode (The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper, Turner  and  Hooch, Tomorrow Never Dies), the movie stars Jamie Lee Curtis (The Fog, Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda), who, a couple years earlier, had appeared in a little horror feature you may have heard of called Halloween (1978).  Also appearing is Ben Johnson (Hang 'Em High, Red Dawn), Hart Bochner (Breaking Away, Supergirl, Die Hard), Derek McKinnon (Breaking All the Rules), Sandee Currie (Terminal Choice), Timothy Webber (The Hotel New Hampshire), and David Copperfield, who was at one time engaged to supermodel Claudia Schiffer but called it off as their relationship interfered with his work, earning himself a place in the `What the f?' hall of fame.

As the movie opens, it's New Year's Eve, and the boys at the Sigma Phi Omega house are having a party.  After a prank directed at one of the spaz fraternity pledges goes horribly wrong, we fast forward three years and see another New Year's Eve bash in the offing, this time a costume affair taking place on an excursion train, hosted by Doc (Bochner) and Mo (Webber), two of the fraternity brothers responsible for the prank that occurred three years ago.  Also in attendance is Alana (Curtis), Mo's girlfriend, who was also involved in the prank, but not to the extent to being fully aware of what exactly Doc and Mo had planned, resulting in some bad blood between her and Doc, who was essentially the ringleader (and a real a-hole, to boot).  Anyway, turns out the nerdlinger who was the victim of the gag is now a dangerous, homicidal psychopath, has decided this a good opportunity to exact his revenge by sneaking on board the train and murdering all those who wrong him back in the day.  Actually, it was a pretty good move because not only is most everyone disguised in costumes, but they're also stoned and/or drunk, and easy pickings.  Also, the trip is an all night deal with no place to stop, so once the fun begins, it won't end until it ends...eventually those on board learn there's a killer among them (after the corpses start piling up), but he could be disguised as anyone, so who's to be trusted?  Oh yeah, a magician played by David Copperfield is also on board for the purpose of entertaining the rubes, performing his illusions (never call them tricks as that really ticks him off).

Like I said, I liked this Canadian produced movie, at least the 2nd time around.  I'm not sure what changed, other than the fact I'm older, but I think I have a bit more appreciation for the effort put into developing the characters within the film.  I believe this helped, especially in terms of Jamie Lee Curtis' character, as we saw she had real empathy for the kid who got tricked not so long ago (apparently she tried to visit him after he ended up in the hospital), along with strong disliking for the person whom she saw responsible for the prank, that being Doc, a self centered, manipulative type, mostly for his cruelty, but also because of the way he used her in his scheme.  The result of all this was an effort to make us feel for Curtis' character in that maybe she didn't deserve the same fate as the rest, and it work, for me at least.  The movie does fall within the `slasher' realm, but gore hounds will most likely be disappointed as there's actually very little bloodletting violence.  Spottiswoode, in his directorial debut, instead seems to be focusing on the suspenseful build up, rather than on the visceral material normally present within the genre.  I thought there was some very decent scares throughout the film...I didn't jump out of my seat or anything, but the movie did keep my attention.  The goofy bits for me was how well the killer was able to keep his identity hidden, even after those on the train realized who was the one responsible for the killings.  The story does throw around a red herring or two, but at one point, before his identity on the train is revealed, you should be able to discern which passenger he is...there was a definite sense of claustrophobia, as most of the film takes place on train that has only three or four cars, but then this also made the difficulty for those trying to find the killer seem all that much more, well, dumb.  One element that didn't really help was the amount of time spent watching David Copperfield perform his magic.  His character, who seemed quite smarmy to me, did figure into the plot, but it just felt like his lengthy performances were included to help pad out a decent running time.  I don't mind magic, but I would have  preferred there not to have been as much as there was since this was supposed to be a horror film.  It was kind of funny, though, given how seriously he takes his craft, to see him stuck on an excursion train having to impress a bunch of drunken college kids.  I did like the bit after the main conductor, played Ben Johnson, discovered the first body and attributes the death as being caused by `some kid messed up on dope'.  As far as Ms. Curtis, her presence here did help a lot, and probably resulted in quite a few seats being filled at the time of the movie's release given her prominence of `Scream Queen' in the late 1970s/early 1980s (she had all of three films out in 1980...this one, along with The Fog and Prom Night).  Overall I found this to be a fairly engaging film, one that rises slightly above that of your run-of-the-mill slasher feature.

The picture quality, presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), looks decent enough, and the audio, available in both Dolby Digital mono and stereo comes across well.  There's really not much in the way of extras other than a theatrical trailer for the film and subtitles, available in both English and Spanish.

Cookieman108


One of My Favorite Woody Allen Films
 	Up until last years Match Point, Crimes and Misdemeanors was considered
Woody Allen's last great film. I've only seen 3 Woody Allen films (not counting Match Point) that came out after C and M and before MP, but I'd have to agree. Crimes  and  Misdemeanors is a film that ranks right up there with Allen's greatest work. Films like The Purple Rose of Cairo and Annie Hall.
It's a perfect blend of drama and comedy. In fact, Match Point was kind of a retread of this film. The drama without the comedy. This movie stars Martin Landau ('Ed Wood') as Judah Rosenthal, an eye-doctor (I don't remember the term for one) who's been having an affair with a woman named Dolores (Anjelica Huston, 'Buffalo 66'). Problem is, he's tried to break it off but Dolores isn't having it. She's, instead, threatened to expose his infidelity to his wife. He's barely intercepted the letters. He looks to a patient, a rabbi (Sam Waterston, 'The Killing Fields'), for help...But it's not working. When he turns to his mobster brother Jack (Jerry Orbach, 'Law  and  Order') for help. Jack suggests murder. Judah reluctantly gives in. Meanwhile, a filmmaker named Cliff Stern (Allen) is tapped by his brother-in-law Lester (Alan Alda,'Mahattan Murder Mystery') to make a documentary special on him. Cliff hates Lester, but isn't getting work anywhere else. While working on it, Cliff meets Halley Reed (Mia Farrow, 'Rosemary's Baby') whom he falls for, despite being married. In typical Woody Allen style, the film is fueled mostly by conversations between the main characters. I liked his ploy of showing clips of old movies (as a character was watching them) that kind of went over what was occurring in his own movie. The movie is separated into comedy and drama, kind of like Allen's "Melinda and Melinda." The drama part is the Judah plot. The comedy is the Cliff plot. Although both of them drift into the other category occasionally. They both finally come together at the end. The movie simultaneously reminded me of Match Point and Manhattan. The former for obvious reasons, the latter because the endings are similar in what happens to Allen's character. Anyway, the acting is great of course. As is the dialogue, as always. There's a lot of great one-liners ("I haven't been inside a woman since I visited the statue of Liberty") and some physical bits of humor as well. If you're a fan of Woody Allen, you'll definitely love it.

GRADE:


Super fun movie!!! Infectious Grooves is in the house.
 	This is such a fun movie to watch. It is so goofy and ridicualous and you never get tired of watching it. Encino Man and Pauly Shore is one of the reasons why the early 90s ruled. There are so many cool scenes in this like when Stoney takes Link to 7-11 and they cruise the aisles looking for some grindeage to munch on. And when they go to the Mountian and ride the Viper in reverse. And the drivers ed  scene when Link thinks it is Rad Mobile and he puts it up on two wheels and they end up at the bar with all the Mexicans. "You see that girl muchacho. Dont look at her!" The prom scene was cool to, it had Infectious Grooves in it. They are a real band but that song was made for the movie. The singer and bass player are in Suicidal Tendencies and the bass player plays for Metallica now. But anyways... Yeah , this movie is totally radical. Daves room is really cool to. I wish my room was that rad. The school looks cool too. I wish my high school was like that. I notice that whenever i watch something like this that was filmed in the early 90s everything seemed real bright and cheerful. Am i crazy or has anyone else noticed this? Pauly Shores punch lines and phrases never get old. They age like a fine wine... Bud-dy.


Perhaps the Best Volume
 	I've also reviewed the first two volumes but I honestly believe that Volume Three is the best.  I plan on getting them all and have the entire series for the first time in my life but, if I had to pick a single best volume, it would be this one.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE has the most solid Cold War story of all the films and everyone is firing on all pistons.  Connery IS Bond in this one, making the character his own, and Robert Shaw and Lotte Lenya as the villians are among the best.
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE is George Lazenby's only film and it remains a controversial entry in the series.  Myself, I loved it.  Diana Rigg is awesome, the photography and editing are great, and the story feels like it has more meat on its bones than any other film.
(These first two films probably come closest to the Ian Fleming novels).

LIVE AND LET DIE is Moore's first appearance as Bond.  It has a hit Paul McCartney  and  Wings song and a 19-year-old Jane Seymour, along with a very charismatic villian in Yaphet Kotto.  The boat chase is still thrilling and Sheriff J.W. Pepper is still hilarious.
GOLDENEYE is Brosnan's first appearance as Bond and remains his best film.  Wonderful use of Russian locales, particularly the "graveyard" of Communist statues, and the deadliest Bond girl since Pussy Galore.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was an attempt to get back to better stories after the overblown epics of the Seventies.

So, as far as I'm concerned, there isn't a bad one in the lot.  Like I said, I plan on getting them all--but this one looks like the best.
Enjoy


Reds 1975 World Series
 	Quality was as good or better as I could expect from VHS tapes from the 70's, but loved the DVDs...  I did notice minor 10 second syncing problems with Disk 1.


AWESOME!!!
 	If you are a Dale Jr fan,this dvd is for you!! I'm a hardcore fan and I loved this.It shows the other side of Dale off the track,him with his buddies and just hangin out.He lets you into his life which it pretty neat considering not many other drivers have done that.In the hidden footage you even get to see his cat Bud which adorable!!!He shows off his new home and the shop


A magnificent moment of nostalgia
 	I knew that I wanted this movie, but I had forgotten much of the plot.  It is a pleasure to view this one and recall that movies could be humorous without being decadent; that adventure could be portrayed without endless special effects or digital animation or dissonant "music"; and that the more leisurely pace was relaxing :-)  Suffice to say that both my wife and I found it very enjoyable!

The extra clips were fascinating background on making of the movie:  one should not miss reviewing them.  The effort spent on the aircraft alone added a considerable touch of reality


Film Deserved of It's Classic Status
 	"Stagecoach" is significant, along with "Destry Rides Again", for redefining the Western for "adult" audiences.  Director John Ford achieved that by emphasizing character developement over action though the film does contain some thrilling sequences.  For sure the film does contain a number of Western archetypes(the gambler, the prostitute with a heart of gold, etc.) but they transcend the stereotypes.  "Stagecoach" is also significant as the film that broke John Wayne to mainstream audiences.  Wayne's entrance as the Ringo Kid is the stuff of legends.  There is not a bum performance in the impressive cast that includes the underappreciated Claire Trevor as the social pariah, Dallas, and Thomas Mitchell as Doc Boone, for which he won an Oscar.  The film's status as being historically significant is not debatable.  As first class entertainment it is timeless


Rockin' Comedy
 	What do you get when you have rock the devil's son and Adam Sandler pLaying the devil's son?You get Little Nicky.This is the strangest movie Adam Sandler has possibly ever played in.

You have two of the devil's sons who want to be the devil themselves and you have Nicky the nice as can be son.The devil doesn't think any of his children are good enough to take his place yet until he tells them otherwise.Little Nicky could care less but his two brothers are outraged.Rioting and leaving hell.Making it impossible for souls to enter or leave.All except for Nicky.He must leave his do gooder life and head to Earth and save his father and all the humans in general.Having a left hell he now has only himself and a little dog companion (Beefy).

Nicky has to learn to live a humans life and capture his two twisted brothers in a mystical flask.Balancing those two and the fact that he can't "release the evil" Nicky finds himself dazed and confused.The movie had some really cool side characters like two rockers/satin enthusiasts.The music is awsome with some good old Ac/Dc and the comedy is actually funny.Many say the jokes are kinda lame in this film i couldn't find a reason to critique this movie otherwise.The extras are great featuring an in depth look at metal bands and rock in general.
A must rent


A Rodger Dodger In An Age Of Politically Correct Repression
 	This is a fun  and quot;art house and quot; movie. Fun because the script is tight and the acting top notch and you know from the start you are in the hands of a good director. Just the kind of thing you want from a night at an art house: not a message movie like many such films but instead in-your-face film making - and three cheers for that. Campbell Scott plays the smooth player who tutors his nephew Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) on how to get laid. The action takes place mostly in one night of bar and party hopping. This script is so good that any bar lizard could learn from the lines and strategy used by Scott's character. Scott's character is an accomplished and dedicated player who never sees the wrong in his ways and that is the delicious and honest part of the film. One review talked about the player venting his anger at women but my take was that he stayed in control the entire movie, venting naturally (and within limits) when he was thrown over by his boss/lover. Like him or hate him, the player is a pro from beginning to end. The viewer has to decide whether he likes or dislikes women. In the final analysis what matters is how well Campbell Scott's character plays the game and he is a rodger dodger in an age of Politically Correct repression. How refreshing! Five stars out of five


Where no man has gone before!
 	These were the first two with Captain Kirk.  I have to admitt that I own all 40 volumes.  Yet I still may get the box sets.  Each episode runs for 50 minutes.  Longer than a 45 minute episode of The Next Generation, but shorter than the unaired 63 minute pilot; The Cage


Hold onto your memories
 	That special team is gone, those players have mostly moved on, but "we'll always have 2004".  Great way to relive the fun, the hope and the victories.  For every diehard fan.