DVD

[Rasputin]

Casablanca - HD DVD

It’s time to revisit a film that ranks second among the American Film Institute’s Top 100 American Films, sixth among the Internet Movie Database’s Top 250, and is consistently ranked among the top ten best movies of all time by every film reviewer I’ve read. Previously released on DVD, we now have a high definition presentation as close to the motion picture theater experience as any fan of Casablanca could possibly desire.The very familiar story takes place in...

[Rasputin]

Boston Legal: Season Two

My aunt – we call her “The Platypus” – has Boston Legal all summed up. When she saw that the first season of this popular legal drama had come across my desk, she was recovering from a particularly nasty trip to the dentist and needed something calming to put on her TV while she recovered. A few days later, I asked her what she thought of Boston Legal – her convalescent TV series of choice – and her reply was, “It’s a bizarre show and I’m not...

[Rasputin]

The Kids in the Hall: Complete Series Megaset

This writer missed the original showings of The Kids in the Hall; I was too young for it. I couldn't stay up late enough to watch the reruns on HBO, but I had a wonderful first experience with them, nonetheless. Many dismiss 1996’s Brain Candy as a pale shade of the true genius of The Kids in the Hall (populated by Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Scott Thompson, Mark McKinney, and Kevin McDonald). But when it was first playing at the United Artists theatre in Berkeley, I figured it looked like...

[Rasputin]

Clerks II 2-Disc Edition

It’s been twelve years since Kevin Smith’s directorial debut with Clerks. Made for $27,000 of credit card debt, it introduced Smith to the film world and introduced moviegoers to ubberslackers Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson). Dante works the counter at the Quick Stop in Leonardo, N.J. while best friend Randal mans the counter at the RST Video Store on the other side of the wall. Clerks is a character study of some remarkably bizarre...

[Rasputin]

M*A*S*H: Season Eleven Collector’s Edition

"This is Robert Pierpoint speaking to you from nearby Panmunjom. It is one minute before ten p.m. We can still hear the sound of nearby artillery. At some point during the next few seconds, the guns should go silent, as the cease-fire officially goes into effect . . . There it is. That's the sound of peace." -- Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, the final episode of M*A*S*H.Creating a big-screen version of a successful television show is hard enough - just sift through the...

[Rasputin]

A Fish Called Wanda Collector’s Edition

And the British said, Let There be Comedy. And so Alec Guinness did amuse (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Man in the White Suit, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers). And they begot The Goon Show (Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe). And they begot Beyond the Fringe (Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, Dudley Moore). And they begot Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin). And lo, the line endeth. Death, time, and great...

[Rasputin]

The American Experience: Jesse James

As an amateur student of Western lore, I’ve always been curious about Jesse James. I even read T.J. Stiles’ Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War. But before writing this review, I did a Google search on the subject and discovered there’s plenty of other Jesse James product even more interesting. I mean, why watch PBS’s American Experience: Jesse James, when you can rent the 1966 comedy, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter, in which the Confederate outlaw...

[Rasputin]

V for Vendetta - HD DVD

Originally intended to satirize Margaret Thatcher’s very conservative government of the ‘80s, as I watched V For Vendetta, I was chilled by how the film seemed to be an exaggerated extrapolation of our own situation. Homophobic, dangerously deceptive, destructively conservative, self-serving, faith-based . . . despite Chancellor Adam Sutler’s (John Hurt) catch phrase of “Strength Through Unity - Unity Through Faith,” his goal is not a Christian Theocracy; it...

[Rasputin]

The Thief and the Cobbler

I’m not qualified to review the “movie” quality of this film having never seen the real film. You see, what’s been released on this DVD is a severely compromised shadow of the original concept by animation artist Richard Williams (best known for his work in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?). However, I’ll do my best to pass along a bit of what I’ve learned while becoming acquainted with this film for the purpose of this review.Richard Williams began working on The...

[Rasputin]

Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig Volume 7

We’ve reached the end of the season. Sigh. The disc’s three episodes are one continuous story, interrupted by opening and closing credits and those pesky Tachikoma Days. But once again the chapter stops are organized in such a way that the credits and Tachikoma segments are all isolated. I’d strongly recommend skipping to the meat of each episode with the next chapter button and enjoy what will appear to be a continuous story.The refugee situation has...

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King Kong - HD DVD

As I ponder the HD disc format war, my greatest concern with HD DVD is its ability to convey very long films while maintaining high quality. On more than one occasion I asked, Is 30 GB enough? With a runtime of 188 minutes, Peter Jackson’s King Kong suggests an answer: yes, but there’s a price to pay. This HD DVD has highly limited supplements and no lossless audio format. I have no doubt that the content decisions were driven by the need to budget the bits for...

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The Green Mile: Special Edition

Say what you want about filmmaker Frank Darabont, but he has a lock on perhaps the smallest known subgenre in history: the Stephen King prison movie. For his sophomore film, Darabont chose King's highly-acclaimed prison drama The Green Mile, after previously bringing to the screen King's other highly- acclaimed prison drama The Shawshank Redemption. It is hard to recall another filmmaker who has earned such critical plaudits, near-hero worship by fans and Best Picture Academy Award nominations...

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Superman Returns

When the Christopher Reeve series of Superman films died a quiet death after the ill-conceived third and fourth outings, the character would vanish from the big screen for nearly two decades. Several directors and writers tried to resurrect Superman onscreen; among them were Kevin Smith, who wrote a screenplay based on the graphic novel that portrayed the superhero’s death and resurrection, and Tim Burton, who might have brought his unique dark style to the character. And who...

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Superman The Movie - HD DVD

In Cliff’s March 2001 review of this extended cut of Superman The Movie, he classified it “as one of the truly great gems of modern American cinema” and an “instant classic.” I shall now risk offending the film’s dedicated fans. This is a fun film with winning performances, but I can’t fully agree with Cliff’s assessment. The production values were great, the special effects were state of the art in ’78, the flying sequences...

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CSI: The Complete Sixth Season

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is one hell of a dependable show. Sure, it’s pretty much the same thing every week – what TV show isn’t? – but this TV-on-DVD addict can’t help but laud William Petersen’s exceptionally involving and stirring hour-long drama. This sixth season of the series showcases CSI at its most grandiose and thoroughly enjoyable. We get to watch our favorite Las Vegas forensic team go through some crazy stuff with bizarre, flesh-eating &ldquo...