DVD's and Blu-ray's are Our Passion

Archive for June, 2009

DVD Review: The Secret Life of the American Teenager – Season Two

Disney | 2008 | 516 mins. | Not Rated As a woman in my thirties, I understand I’m not part of the target demographic for ABC Family’s hit series, The Secret Life of An American Teenager. After watching both DVD releases of the show, I truly don’t understand the appeal. The premise is absurdly unrealistic [...]

Blu-ray Review: The Greatest Game Ever Played

Disney / Buena Vista | 2005 | 121 mins | Rated PG On the face of it, golf doesn’t exactly sound like titillating cinema. However, the 2005 film, The Greatest Game Ever Played manages to be exciting, dramatic and inspirational from beginning to end. Directed by well known actor Bill Paxton (Big Love), the film [...]

DVD Review: Friday the 13th – The Final Chapter (Deluxe Edition)

Paramount | 1984 | 91 mins. | Rated R I guess we’ll never really know for certain whether Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter was really supposed to be the end of the franchise. The publicity machine suckered fans in with the tagline, “Jason’s unlucky day!” In hindsight, anyone who believed that Jason would actually [...]

DVD Review: Saving Grace – Season Two

20th Century Fox | 2008 | 601 mins. | Not Rated There was a time when, if a successful film actress made the transition to television, it was considered a major step down; an admission that their career was on the fast track to nowhere. Times have changed and it’s not uncommon to see a [...]

Blu-ray Review: The Cell 2

New Line Cinema | 2009 | 94 mins | Not rated Though advertised as a sequel to the 2000 Jennifer Lopez film The Cell, this direct to video sequel has nothing in common with its namesake. That’s if you don’t count the short, clumsy narration in the opening seconds, a cheap gadget strapped to star [...]

DVD Review: Gran Torino

Warner Bros. | 2008 | 117 mins | Rated R Clint Eastwood has reportedly said that 2008′s Gran Torino will mark his last appearance in front of the camera. If that’s the case, his absence as an actor will mark a big change in the film landscape. From the time Eastwood became a star in [...]

DVD Review: The Three Stooges Collection, Volume Six 1949-1951

Sony Pictures | 1949 | 390 mins. | Not Rated The Three Stooges broke away from Ted Healy in 1934 to form their own act and become one of the most successful comedy acts in the world for the next thirty years. Best known for their short subject films, their trademark was very physical slapstick [...]

DVD Review: Spring Breakdown

Warner Bros. | 2009 | 84 mins | Rated R In the midst of financial problems, Warner Brothers was forced to close its independent picture wing Warner Independent. Some pictures on its slate found new studio homes, most notably Slumdog Millionaire, which was picked up by Fox Searchlight, released in theaters, became a big hit [...]

DVD Review: The Best of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Uncensored)

Warner Bros. | 2009 | 216 mins. | Not Rated As a fan of British comedy, I started watching American broadcasts of the classic British improvisational series Whose Line Is It Anyway? sometime in the early nineties. Built on the notion that a rotating gang of celebrities (particularly stand-up comedians), would play a series of [...]

DVD Review: Woodstock – 3 Days of Peace & Music (Director’s Cut)

Warner Bros. | 1970 | 224 mins | Rated R Is it just me, or does 1969 seem like a long time ago? The idea of peace and free love seems like such a foreign concept to me, a person born in the early seventies who grew up in the midst of the Aids crisis [...]

Blu-ray Review: Striking Distance

Sony Pictures | 1993 | 102 mins | Rated R In the early 1990′s, Bruce Willis was one of the biggest action stars in Hollywood. Given the major success of the first two Die Hard films he was often cast in films in that genre. One can only believe that Willis thought his acting skills [...]

DVD Review: Nobel Son

20th Century Fox | 2008 | 110 mins. | Rated R The first few minutes of writer/director Randall Miller’s (Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School, Bottle Shock) Nobel Son, gave me a bit of a headache. The film’s frenzied, video-style beginning has scenes flashing by very quickly that reveal a bloody severed thumb while [...]

Blu-ray Review: Morning Light

Disney / Buena Vista | 2008 | 98 mins Executive produced by Walt’s nephew Roy Disney, Morning Light chronicles a real-life crew training and competing in the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race aboard a TP52 class yacht, Morning Light. I didn’t know this but Disney is a multiple winner and big player in the Transpacific Yacht [...]

Blu-ray Review: Miracle

Disney / Buena Vista | 2004 | 135 mins | Rated PG Given the way the world is today, memories of the Soviet Union as a superpower and the Cold War are beginning to fade, in favor of a host of new (and old) international concerns. However, it wasn’t that long ago that the Soviet [...]

Blu-ray Review: He’s Just Not That Into You

New Line Cinema | 2009 | 129 mins | Rated PG-13 Based on the New York Times bestseller of the same name by Sex and the City writers Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, director Ken Kwapis’ (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) well-cast romantic comedy, He’s Just Not That Into You, made an impressive splash [...]

DVD Review: 24 – Season Seven

20th Century Fox | 2009 | 1115 mins | Not rated In the face of the 2007-2008 Writer’s Guild of America Strike, the seventh season of 24 was delayed. The series was off the air for over 19 months. After a lackluster sixth year, season seven came back with renewed energy, fun action sequences and [...]

DVD Review: John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band – Live in Toronto ’69

Shout Factory | 1969 | 56 mins. | Not Rated In 1969, concert promoter John Brower convinced John Lennon to play a short set the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival Festival. Though Lennon’s performance lasts a mere thirty-five minutes (the last twelve of which are Yoko’s caterwauling), the impact was lasting. Thankfully, D.A. Pennebaker (Monterey [...]

Blu-ray Review: The Diary of Anne Frank – 50th Anniversary Edition

20th Century Fox | 1959 | 180 mins | Not rated I want to go on living even after I’m dead. — Millie Perkins as Anne Frank On June 12, 2009, Anne Frank would have celebrated her eightieth birthday. But, as much of the world knows, Anne Frank died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen. She was [...]

DVD Review: Army Wives – The Complete Second Season

Disney/Buena Vista | 2008 | 804 mins. | Rated PG For those not familiar with the series, Army Wives follows the lives of four army wives, their families, and an “army husband” whose wife is in the army. The pilot episode served as an introduction to their world; the story in that episode was told [...]

DVD Review: Catlow

Warner Bros. | 1971 | 101 mins. | Rated PG-13 Yul Brynner is best known for his portrayal of the King of Siam in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The King and I on both stage and screen. He played the role 4,626 times on stage over the span of his career. He appeared in [...]