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        <title>Jeffrey Kauffman's DVD Talk DVD Reviews</title> 
        <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video</link> 
        <description>DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed</description> 
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                                <title>The Beiderbecke Tapes</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38346</link>
                <pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:41:21 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38346"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001V7YZEI.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>One of the great pleasures of reviewing for DVD Talk is coming across the unexpected gem in your review stack, especially when it's in a genre you're fond of.  A year or so ago, I took a chance on a British miniseries called <I>The Beiderbecke Affair</i> because the plot synopsis mentioned two things which interest me greatly:  jazz and mystery.  Once I actually got the DVD, I discovered (as I mentioned in my review) that the mystery element wasn't exactly of Agatha Christie-esque proportions, but the jazz was excellent and the repartee between the stars, James Bolan and Barbara Flynn, may indeed, as the pull quote on the cover the boxed set alleges, harken back to the zany comedies of the 1940's (actually 1930's--think <I>The Thin Man</i>).  But it's more than that, really.  While this second outing for the <I>Beiderbecke</i> crew has at least a tad more mystery (and just the fain...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38346">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Sixty Six</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38340</link>
                <pubDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:14:15 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38340"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001V5K3AU.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Every so often a film that seems to have a lot, if not everything, going for it, falls through the cracks of public awareness and disappears into the gaping maw of clearance items at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video (this particular film is released, in fact, on Blockbuster's own boutique label, usually not a very good sign that the film was in fact a blockbuster).  Have you ever heard of the film <I>Sixty Six</i>?    If you have, you're a more astute barometer of popular culture than I ever have been, evidently.  (It should be noted the film is also known as <I>66</i>, which may have contributed, at least partially, to its lackluster marketing campaign--the film's official site uses the numeral version, while it shows up on IMDb in the word form).  I was drawn to this title by its plot summary, a summary which talked about a young British boy being Bar Mitzvah'd on the very day in 1...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38340">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Sons of Anarchy: Season One (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38329</link>
                <pubDate>Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:53:44 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38329"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/ts1250630591.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>It's almost humorous in a quaint sort of way to look back on 1953's <I>The Wild One</i>, the film that established Marlon Brando as a new kind of movie star, but which, from a broader sociological perspective, helped to start the whole trend of 1950's film about alienated youth.  The first thing you notice about Brando's biker antics throughout the film are how tame they all are, despite the hint of menace in Brando's performance.  And the gang itself, while rowdy, seems positively clean cut compared to everyday people you see walking the streets nowadays.  I have to wonder if 56 years down the line the same reaction may be awaiting <I>Sons of Anarchy</i>, the new FX series about a California biker gang that has a big pull quote on its new Blu-ray Season One box comparing it to <I>The Sopranos</i>, but which comes off more as a similarly scrubbed and polished update of the venerabl...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38329">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Set 1</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38085</link>
                <pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:17:11 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38085"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001V7YZE8.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>From our vantage point over a century on, it may seem like we should pity the poor British crime writer fools who had the misfortune to be hawking their wares in the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods.  After all, probably 99.9% of today's public, if polled, could name but one fictional detective from that period, that being of course Sherlock Holmes.  And yet, as one of the little factoid extras included in <I>The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes Set One</i> points out, not only were there numerous contemporaries of Holmes during that period, some of them actually outsold the Holmes stories in such publications as <I>The Strand</i>.<p>I personally first became aware of a whole subculture of Holmesiana and related detectives when I was a kid in junior high and the Scholastic Book Club offered a compilation of Titanic victim Jacques Futrelle's <I>The Thinking Machine</i> stories (<...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38085">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Total Drama Island: The Complete Series</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38285</link>
                <pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:58:42 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38285"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/ts1251133086.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>For an "unscripted" reality series, <I>Survivor</i> has about the most predictable dialogue (or monologue, as the case may be) ever.  My wife, who is probably a bigger fan of the show than I am, regularly "previews" what host Jeff Probst is about to say in any given episode, just a moment before he actually says it.  You know, things like "Worth playing for?" or "<i>This</i> is what you covet" or my personal favorite (especially when there's only one person submitting a ballot), "I'll go tally the votes."  I've wondered if this is one of the reasons Probst famously threatened to leave the show a couple of seasons ago--I mean, there are only so many ways you can say, "Survivors--ready.  Go!"  (Though did anyone else notice Probst's bizarrely inflected intro's to last season's episodes, intro's that seemed to be playing that old game of accenting a different word in the same sentence...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38285">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Ulysses</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38282</link>
                <pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:55:53 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Rent It</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38282"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001DZOCY6.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Anyone of a certain age who remembers Saturday afternoon kids' movies, usually with a serial and several cartoons, is sure to recall the "wonders" of the Italian sword and sandal epics that once populated neighborhood theaters.  This cult sub-genre probably reached its zenith with the Steve Reeves <I>Hercules</i> films, but there had been at least a few precursors, including this little remembered 1954 opus which starred none other than Kirk Douglas.  A full six years before Douglas attained skirted immortality as Spartacus, he brought his iconic presence to another "real" immortal (or so the epilogue to this film insists), <I>Ulysses</i>, based on Homer's epic poem which any student of classical literature can attest is not always the easiest thing to wade through, despite its often exciting episodes.  That same mixture of fun and lethargy runs through this film, which is addition...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38282">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Cutthroat Island (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38276</link>
                <pubDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:07:42 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38276"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B00275EDYA.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>For such a vaunted film genre as the pirate movie, the box office returns have been pretty unpredictable through the years.  While those with short memories may think that every swashbuckler arriving at their local megaplex has been an epic success of <I>Pirates of the Caribbean</i> proportions, in fact the waters are littered with the detritus of scores of pirate movies that have sunk like a galleon shot to swiss cheese smithereens by scores of cannonballs.  <I>The Pirate Movie</i>, <I>Swashbuckler</i> and a host of others in relatively recent history never quite captured the fancy of the movie going public, but none rose quite to the <I>Heaven's Gate</i> excesses of Renny Harlin's 1995 opus, <I>Cutthroat Island</i>, a film that cost the then pretty astounding price of over $90 million and barely managed to bring in about one tenth of that amount in box office receipts.<p>But the ...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38276">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>The History Channel Presents: The Crusades - Crescent &amp; the Cross (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38250</link>
                <pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:17:14 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38250"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001KBZ38W.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>There's a reason you may have seen none other than Laura Bush wince when her husband, in one of his early pronouncements on the War on Terror, called it a "crusade."  Mrs. Bush is famously a librarian and evidently well aware of the power of words and their sometimes centuries worth of often subliminal import.  Crusade may be a fairly innocuous noun in the Western world (and may in fact have been used innocently by Mrs. Bush's husband--though I have my doubts, frankly), but in the Middle East, it is a word fraught with subtexts that include conquest, pillaging and the ugliest kind of religious war.  It may be hard for us westerners to think of Christians as the attackers and putative "bad guys" in any conflict, but for Middle Easterners, rightly or wrongly, that's exactly what they were in The Crusades.  This three hour History Channel documentary gives an astounding amount of deta...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38250">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Dexter: The Complete Third Season</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38225</link>
                <pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:04:19 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38225"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/ts1250633023.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>A few years ago my wife and I were suffering from terrible colds.  I was sent on the medication run to the store and, armed with a pile of coupons I had saved, bought us a bunch of DVD's for bargain basement prices.  One of those was the first season boxed set of <I>Dexter</i>.  Friends of mine had been raving about the series, and I thought it might be a pleasant enough time killer (no pun intended, considering the subject matter) that we could intersperse with other, lighter fare as we hacked and coughed our way through several days.  Little did I know that within seconds of starting the first episode, we were completely and irrevocably hooked, watching the entire first season over the course of the rest of that day and the next. <p>Based on a series of novels by Jeff Lindsay, <I>Dexter</i> might at first glance be just another crime procedural series made in the wake of the succ...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38225">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38181</link>
                <pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:37:35 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38181"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B00260LFAQ.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>You comedy lovers who are fans of the parody newspaper <I>The Onion</i> are probably already familiar with that publication's penchant for hilarious headlines like "World's Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-Berg" or my own particular favorite "Tipper Gore Jerks Arrhythmically at Inaugural Ball."  You might therefore be forgiven if, upon hearing the title <I>Harvard Beats Yale 29-29</i>, you think you've stumbled onto a satirical film in the <I>Onion</i> vein, but the fact is that this is a documentary, one which cribs its moniker from a very famous actual headline in <I>The Harvard Crimson</i> in 1968.<p>I am really not much of a football fan when you get right down to it.  There is just too much stopping and starting for my latent attention deficit disorder to ever really make the game consistently interesting to me.  I much prefer the manic pace of basketball.  That said, like a lot of g...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38181">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>A Touch of Frost: Season 14</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38178</link>
                <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:07:59 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Rent It</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38178"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B0026LYMHI.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>We who make our daily way through the wild and wooly figurative "west" of the United States often wonder if our across the pond cousins to the east in Great Britain are <I>really</i> as mild mannered and well behaved as they seem on the surface.  Yes, their street beat policemen are famously unarmed and you rarely hear about rampant crime shaking England the way it does America, especially the more outrageous activity like high school shootings and the like.  But how then to explain the glut of British police and detective shows, many of which have crossed the Atlantic to considerable acclaim stateside?  One of the longer running series in this genre is the David Jason starrer <I>A Touch of Frost</i>, whose 14th season has just been released on DVD.  (It should be noted that this season, like many in British television, is rather short by U.S. standards--only three episodes.  In fa...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38178">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>John Heffron: Middle Class Funny</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38172</link>
                <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:59:01 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38172"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B0029W2V9K.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Though it was more of a public relations stunt than even your run of the mill "reality" show, <I>Last Comic Standing</i> at least provided those of us who love stand up comics a chance to sample a wide array of talent over the five years (and six seasons) the show ran.  In fact, my wife, who does occasional stand up herself, and I lamented the show's absence this summer.  The series, especially in its early seasons hosted by Jay Mohr, was a fun romp for both up and coming and also well established, if not exactly household name, comedians.  If the Anthony Clark hosted season was a major embarrassment (at least for Clark, who obviously was ill at ease and fumbled his way through virtually every episode), and the two last seasons with Bill Bellamy seemed even more scripted than usual, the show at least introduced the public at large to some very appealing comedians.  Season Two winne...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38172">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Helen West</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37888</link>
                <pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:29:37 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37888"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001UWOLPW.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>For those of you who, like I do, love the British mystery tradition, especially as personified by such writers as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, the name Frances Fyfield may not be as immediately recognizable, despite her enormous popularity in the UK.  Even less recognizable is Fyfield's approach to her genre, one colored as much by psychology and backstory as it is by procedure, both police and prosecutorial.  If Christie, for example, has a set path in virtually every thing she wrote--characters are introduced, at least one of them is murdered, the sleuth (Marple, Poirot, Tummy and Tuppence) get to work, ultimately uncovering all sorts of spider web relationships between the characters, finally revealing the murderer and the motive--Fyfield seems to be more interested in wandering the meandering paths of various characters' personalities, with the crimes, such as they are, ...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37888">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>The Diary of a Nobody</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37904</link>
                <pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:29:37 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37904"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001UWOLQ6.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>I'm sure you've met the type:  self-important, usually unbelievably verbose, completely certain his opinion is the most salient piece of information you're likely to ever receive, with equal parts smarm and geekishness rounding out his personality profile.  What's that?  No, I am <i>not</i> describing the average online critic.  I am describing that certain kind of self-appointed expert who is sure if he acts like someone important, he's sure to become one.  You might think this propensity is a fairly recent phenomenon (perhaps even one linked to internet use, where "experts" run rampant), but the charming comic novel <I>Diary of a Nobody</i>, which first appeared in the British humor magazine <i>Punch</i> over a century ago, proves that people of this ilk have been around since time immemorial, driving the rest of us slightly batty.<p>This effortlessly charming 2007 television ada...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37904">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Mama Cass Television Program</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38162</link>
                <pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:27:21 UTC</pubDate>
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               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38162"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/ts1249957626.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Video may have killed the radio star, but there was a time, not so very long ago, when the <I>sound</i> of a musician actually outweighed (no pun intended) their physical appearance.  While it's a matter of record (if some dispute) that Mama Cass' girth is what initially kept her from being brought into the group that would become The Mamas and the Papas, the fact is her smooth and velvety alto was a defining trademark of that group, a trademark she carried forth into a successful solo career, at least until her untimely death in 1974 from an apparent heart attack (more about the <I>alleged</i> mode of death later in this review).  Mama Cass (neé Ellen Cohen) may not have looked like your average pop star, but the lady could sing, and she had an appealingly low key and also often self deprecatory quality about her, both of which are on full display in this 1969 ABC television spec...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38162">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Torchwood: Children of Earth (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38156</link>
                <pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:31:24 UTC</pubDate>
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                <![CDATA[
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               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38156"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B002BVYBK6.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Who woulda thunk it possible--within weeks of each other, television science fiction fans had not one, but two, incredibly stellar finales to watch (in the case of <I>Torchwood</i>, after the recent decision to renew the series, it's a season finale, but even so).  I had the pleasure of revisiting <I>Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5</i> a few weeks ago, and I had a similar pleasure (if it can be called that, given the rather troubling aspects of this particular wrap up) of watching <I>Torchwood:  Children of Earth</i>, something I hadn't been able to catch in its initial broadcast version when it aired.  While both finales have come in for at least some passing lambasting from rabid fans, it's hard to argue with the emotional impact (some would say devastation) that <I>Children of Earth</i> especially provides.  For a series that has consistently broken the mold and forged new direc...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38156">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Film Collection (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38136</link>
                <pubDate>Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:44:48 UTC</pubDate>
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               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38136"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001RIZE3M.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><i>Note:  The star ratings are averages for the four titles in this boxed set taken together.</i><p><b>The Movie:</b><br>I don't know if the <i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</i> qualify as the strangest ever kiddie show franchise (I mean, there has to be a case to be made for <I>Power Rangers</i> at least), it certainly has proven to be one of the most popular and weirdly adaptable into various media.  I first became aware of the series years ago, long before I ever had kids of my own, when (cue <I>Twilight Zone</i> theme) I was hired to Music Direct a musical featuring a bunch of senior citizens.  One of the recurring plot gags revolved around these elders' confusion about their grandkids' fascination with the shelled green quartet.  My job was to play the iconic four note TMNT Theme every time the show was mentioned.  Well, it's a living.<p>You do have to hand it to creators Kevin Eastman and Peter La...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38136">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>La Finta Giardiniera (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38101</link>
                <pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:31:08 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
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               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38101"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B0020MSTUE.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>What were you doing when you were 18?  Counting the days until you graduated from high school?  Maybe working your first part time job?  Relishing in that peculiar freedom that comes from being old enough to be largely responsible for your private time, while still being young enough to have your basic needs provided by your parents?  Whatever you were doing, chances are you weren't, like Mozart was at this tender age, finishing your first really mature <i>opera buffa</i>, <I>La Finta Giardiniera</i> (The Pretend Garden Girl).<p>In an <I>oeuvre</i> so variegated and massive as Mozart's, it's natural that at least a few pieces have (at least temporarily) fallen by the wayside and not really enjoyed the renown they should in a just world.  Such a piece is <I>Giardiniera</i>, a piece whose relative obscurity was at least partly due to the centuries long loss of the original Italian li...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38101">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Chaos (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38093</link>
                <pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:27:44 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
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               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Rent It</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38093"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B0027VTMAY.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>One of the hazards of being a reviewer is that you frequently get that "déjà vu all over again" feeling when you watch various films.  That happened to me quite recently when I felt like <I>Echelon Conspiracy</i> was cobbled together from leftovers of <I>Eagle Eye</i>.  Perhaps a little more outré, though none the less echo laden, was the strange feeling I got while watching <I>Chaos</i>, a heist movie with an inside man angle that reminded me of, well, <I>Inside Man</i>.   If neither of these films really registers on your personal radar, don't feel too overly concerned--neither made a huge dent in the box office, and were it not for the residual interest generated by home video releases (including Blu-rays for both of them), they probably wouldn't be high up on anyone's "must see" list.<P>And yet the two films (both from 2006--mere coincidence?) have a great deal in common.  B...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38093">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Le Nozze di Figaro (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38046</link>
                <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:50:29 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
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               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38046"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B0028O34SG.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>This may strike some as heresy, but I'd like to go on record stating I think Looney Tunes master Chuck Jones is every bit the genius Mozart was, and about as musically astute.  In the famous Bugs Bunny short <I>Rabbit of Seville</i>, Bugs and Elmer play out their manic feud to music culled from Rossini's <I>Barber of Seville</i>, with the final shot showing Bugs dropping Elmer onto a wedding cake labeled <I>The Marriage of Figaro</i>.  Bugs slyly looks at the camera and winks, "Next!"  That may just seem like another great Warner Brothers toon sight gag until you stop and realize that the source material for <I>Barber of Seville</i> was a comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais.  Beaumarchais went on to write a sequel to <I>Barber</i>, casting many of the same characters decades later.  The sequel was, of course, <I>The Marriage of Figaro.</i>  Mozart adapted that piece into what has become ...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38046">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Wagner: Siegfried / St. Clair, Staatskapelle Weimar (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38036</link>
                <pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:31:32 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38036"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B002AT462C.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Here's a little advice for all you aspiring critics, or indeed any other people who may already be offering their opinion in print or on line:  you never know who is going to read your reviews.  I have been pleasantly surprised (most of the time, anyway) to receive some very thoughtful emails from producers, directors, stars and scenarists through the years of my professional reviewing duties, even when I have not been particularly kind in my assessment of any given piece.  Such was the case with my reviews of the first two parts of Wagner's <I>Ring</i> Cycle as performed by the Weimar Staatskapelle.  While I found both <I>Das Rheingold</i> and <I>Die Walküre</i> elegantly sung and played, I found the staging (especially with regard to production design and costuming) of the former absolutely ludicrous and I was exceedingly distressed at some of the low volume levels on <I>Walkür...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38036">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Audience Of One</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38035</link>
                <pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:31:13 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38035"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001QU8834.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Obsession ain't pretty.  Ask my very own wife, who has suffered the slings and arrows of my own private fascination with classic actress Frances Farmer, an "interest" (I use the term in a probably pointless attempt to prevent outright embarrassment) that has cost me thousands of dollars and untold hours of research time.  At least I had the good luck to uncover a lot of previously unreported information about Farmer, something that helped rectify years of misinformation about her and gave me some personal satisfaction of a job well done.  No such luck for Pastor Richard Gazowsky, a San Francisco based Pentecostal minister who became convinced none other than God had given him the command to go forth and make a movie.  A really, really big movie.  A movie, as Gazowsky himself portentously describes, that would be a marriage of <I>Star Wars</i> and <I>The Ten Commandments</i>.  Gazow...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38035">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Race to Witch Mountain (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38034</link>
                <pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:56:07 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38034"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B002935GNC.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Disney was one of the first studios to realize the financial benefit of re-releasing titles every seven or so years.   In that span of time, a whole new slew of kids were around to enjoy the films for the first time, and even kids who had been there on the first time around were eager to return to see their favorites again.  Of course this was all before the advent of home video.  One thing that Disney couldn't quite overcome was the dated aspect to some of its films, something that (ridiculously so, if you ask me) led to the complete withdrawal of certain titles like <I>Song of the South</i>.  Other, less vaunted titles, saw their creaky special effects and, frankly, hackneyed story elements put the kibosh on any theatrical re-releases, despite their initial success, and continued sales in the home video market.  And in cases like that, Disney simply does the next best thing:  it ...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38034">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>How the Earth Was Made (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38030</link>
                <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:52:45 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Rent It</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38030"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001UGJUQS.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>The most surprising reference to time in the History Channel's literally by the numbers documentary <I>How the Earth Was Made</i> is not the multi-billion year figure bandied about with regard to our planet's probable age.   It's actually on the opposite end of that immense timeline that I found my mind being boggled--the fact is, it's only been in the last 200 or so years that actual scientific research has been done attempting to ferret out how exactly Earth came to be.  What that says to me is that the final chapter on all of this has probably not yet been written, though the facts unearthed (no pun intended) so far are often fascinating and point out a long, long history here where, were we to have experienced it ourselves, would have left us feeling very much like strangers in a strange land.<p>The History Channel obviously knows how to put together these sweeping overviews, a...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38030">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5 (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37990</link>
                <pubDate>Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:47:27 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37990"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B0026RHR6U.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Thomas Wolfe probably had nothing like <I>Battlestar Galactica</i> in mind when he wrote the novel whose title would enter the public lexicon, <I>You Can't Go Home Again</i>, and yet in so many ways, that trenchant little adage sums up not only this remarkable series' premise itself, but also, perhaps more subtly, neatly refers to its less than stellar (no pun intended) source material.  To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, I was there for the original <I>Battlestar Galactica</i>, I watched the original <I>Battlestar Galactica</i>, and this recent iteration for the SciFi Channel is no first version of <I>Battlestar Galactica</i>.  And that, ladies and germs, is a very good thing.  The original ABC series from the late 1970s was made in the wake of <I>Star Wars</i> and while it sought to graft a pseudo-Biblical <I>mythos</i> onto the shoot-'em-up quasi-Western antics of the George Lucas fil...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37990">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Quincy Jones' 75th Birthday Celebration-Live at Mo (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37979</link>
                <pubDate>Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:55:44 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37979"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B0024ODWNW.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>OK, I admit it up front, I'm a cynic.  I stayed away as much as possible from what I saw as the completely overhyped "news" coverage (which continues more or less unabated to the day I'm writing this review) of the death of Michael Jackson.  I have to wonder if similar coverage will be granted to the man who in my estimation not only was largely responsible for Jackson's own preeminence as an adult performer (in the "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" years, arguably Michael's high points, career wise), but also a man who has indelibly shaped popular and jazz music for well over half a century.  It makes me a little sad to realize that when Quincy Jones passes, yes, he'll get acclaim and some passing recognition, but probably none of the hoopla that surrounded Jackson's death.  I have a feeling Mr. Jones wouldn't want it any other way.<P>This incredible musical genius, whose middle name ...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37979">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Monk: Season Seven</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37978</link>
                <pubDate>Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:55:44 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37978"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001W79MHM.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>As I mentioned in my recent reviews of the Acorn re-releases of the feature length <I>Poirot</i> episodes from that wonderful long running David Suchet series, <I>Monk</i> certainly didn't invent the idea of an obsessive compulsive detective.  Of course, back in Dame Agatha's day there weren't acronym laden descriptions of various quirks, not to mention actual neuroses, and so Christie's Belgian detective might be seen as simply fussy, a nitpicker who needs his eggs cooked "just so."   Well, we're in a more clinical age now, for better or worse, so Adrian Monk is not only properly diagnosed (or at least we hope so), he's under the care of a therapist and has a trusty aide there to proffer a disinfectant wipe should any germ happen to land on his hand.<p>Longtime fans of USA's <I>Monk</i> have been fairly vocal that they've felt the series has lost its "mojo" over the past couple of...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37978">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>A Dog of Flanders</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37968</link>
                <pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:32:03 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37968"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B00268EY60.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>While I am usually loathe to see works of literature radically changed for their Hollywood versions, in the case of <I>A Dog of Flanders</i>, I must say that the more or less happy, if really, really treacly, ending the film comes up with keeps the film from being a jaw dropping horror, which it no doubt would have been had the filmmakers opted for Ouida's novel's original ending.  I don't want to post spoilers in either direction (good or bad ending wise), but let's just say in the original story, little boy Nello and his dog Patrasche don't exactly live happily ever after.  And if you want to know the whole story, simply remove "happily ever after" from that last sentence and then re-read it to get an idea of what I'm talking about. <p><I>A Dog of Flanders</i> has been filmed several times, in both live action and, strangely enough, anime, from as early as 1914 to as recently as ...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37968">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>The Judy Garland Show, Vol. 1</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37961</link>
                <pubDate>Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:53:16 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37961"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B002BI4JKG.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>It was a counter-programming stroke of genius.  NBC was riding high with the seemingly unstoppable <I>Bonanza</i>, one of the first westerns to film in color, and a show which helped secure NBC's dominance on Sunday evenings.  CBS had tried a laundry list of various attempts when they hit upon the brainstorm of a glossy, big budget offering that would appeal to adults and probably especially women, hopefully drawing enough of an audience to make a dent in the Cartwright clan's ratings.  And so <I>The Judy Garland Show</i> was born, strangely after a rather contentious history between the star and the network, one that saw both hugely viewed specials from the mid-1950s on, but also a nasty lawsuit with both parties suing each other over alleged breach of contract.  But the duelists put that all behind them and Judy, according to virtually all accounts, managed to pull herself togeth...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37961">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Tracey Takes On... Complete Seasons 3 &amp; 4</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37940</link>
                <pubDate>Sun, 19 Jul 2009 01:14:09 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37940"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001YTOIRW.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Well, there's a little good news if, heaven forfend, Tracey Ullman ever happens to be walking by when a Mafia hit goes down.  Even if a Goodfella happens to notice her, chances are she won't have to enter the Federal Witness Protection Program.  Ullman can instead simply disappear into one (or more) of the myriad characters she so effortlessly creates and inhabits in <I>Tracey Takes On</i>, her celebrated HBO series from the late 1990s whose third and fourth seasons have finally been released on DVD.  In my DVD Talk review of <I>State of the Union</i>, I lamented Ullman's curious lack of superstardom, despite her being probably the most versatile television comedienne since Carol Burnett, and one who, perhaps even more than Burnett herself, seems to have chameleon like capabilities to simply "become" a host of different characters, both male and female, young and old, addlepated an...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37940">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Diaries, Notes &amp; Sketches</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37942</link>
                <pubDate>Sun, 19 Jul 2009 01:14:09 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37942"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B002DPPH7Q.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br><i> "Since 1950 I have been keeping a film diary.  I have been walking around with my Bolex and reacting to the immediate reality:  situations, friends, New York, seasons of the year.  On some days I shoot ten frames, on others ten seconds, still on others ten minutes.  Or I shoot nothing. . . 'Walden' contains material from the years 1964-1968 strung together in chronological order."</I>  --Jonas Mekas <p><i> "The amateur is--he will be perhaps--the counter-bourgeois artist."</I> --Roland Barthes<p><i> "Let us set up our Camera also, and let the sun paint the people." </i> --Ralph Waldo Emerson<p>Those three epigraphs culled from this mammoth new release of Jonas Mekas' <I>Diaries, Notes and Sketches, Also Known as Walden</i> may provide at least a starting point in evaluating one of the most unusual, yet epochal, film offerings of the 1960s.  This most certainly isn't Hollywood, ...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37942">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>300: The Complete Experience (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37929</link>
                <pubDate>Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:37:46 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Highly Recommended</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37929"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001LF2WCC.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>With the impending DVD and BD release of <I>Watchmen</i> coming next week, our friends at Warner, taking a cue from those good folks at Acorn, roll out a repackaging of director Zack Snyder's last graphic novel adaptation, <I>300</i>, with this new "Complete Experience" soubriquet showing that, unlike Acorn, Warner actually knows when to throw in some new bonuses with re-releases for those completists among us (and we know who we are).  I was sorely disappointed with the first BD release of <i>300</i>, if only for the fact that it left the compelling PIP extra from the HD-DVD release out (but of course it took BD's a while to catch up to what were standard features in the HD-DVD format--not that I'm bitter or anything).  The good news is this latest iteration of <i>300</i> contains almost everything that was on the previous HD-DVD and BD releases, plus a wealth of new features, not...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37929">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Echelon Conspiracy (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37868</link>
                <pubDate>Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:48:43 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Rent It</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37868"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B00274SIUQ.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>What in heaven's name has happened to Shia LaBeouf?  He's been given a chin implant, his hair is lightened, and his "acting" is full of nervous tics and weird facial--what's that?  That <i>isn't</i> Shia LaBeouf?  Isn't this <i>Eagle Eye</i>?  It's <i>not</i>?    Pardon me a moment--I need to go check the packaging for this movie.<p>OK, I'm back.  Sorry, my bad.  This is actually <I>Echelon Conspiracy</i> starring Shane West.  You hopefully will forgive me my error when I tell you that <I>Echelon</i>, much like <I>Eagle Eye</i>, concerns an all powerful, all knowing computer with a female voice that contacts various people and then kills them if they don't do its (her?) bidding.  Sound suspiciously familiar?   It should, especially when you consider <I>Eagle Eye</i>'s wide release in September 2008 was months before <I>Echelon Conspiracy</i>'s limited one just a few months ago.<p>I...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37868">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>Jackie Mason: the Ultimate Jew</title>
                <category>DVD Video</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37838</link>
                <pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:05:16 UTC</pubDate>
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                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Rent It</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37838"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B001LRL4VA.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Frankly, I don't think the real question is whether Jackie Mason ever actually flipped off Ed Sullivan on the air.  Mason always denied it, existing tape of the performance seems to suggest that he may have come close, but never actually crossed the line, despite Sullivan firing him from an outrageously lucrative exclusive television contract that night.  And the fact remains that about a year later, Sullivan publicly apologized to Mason and welcomed him back on the show.  So that long debated piece of pop culture trivia is a sideline to what <I>really</i> matters when one considers Mason's rather pugnacious personality, and that's this:  the real question is, <I>could</i> Mason have flipped off Sullivan, by which I mean, was it in his general nature to give the finger to the hand that was at least partially feeding him?  And the answer to that is a resounding "yes."  Mason seems t...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37838">Read the entire review</a></p>
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                                <title>12 Rounds (Blu-ray)</title>
                <category>Blu-ray</category>
                <link>https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37832</link>
                <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:01:12 UTC</pubDate>
                <description>
                <![CDATA[
                                  <span class="rss:item">
               <class="posted">
               <b class="first">Rent It</b>
               <p><a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37832"><img src="//images.dvdtalk.com/covers/B0021L8UHQ.jpg" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" border="0"></a><b>The Movie:</b><br>Sometimes expectations are everything when you watch a movie.  I expected <I>12 Rounds</i> to be pure crap, more or less, and because I had set my personal viewing bar so incredibly low, imagine my surprise when the film actually turned out to be, if not exactly a top candidate for an Oscar, at least a passably entertaining romp, with some adrenaline pumping action sequences, and an at least competent leading performance by WWE superstar John Cena.  If <I>12 Rounds</i> frequently ventures into pure absurdity and stretches credulity to the point where it not only snaps, but ricochets back and blinds you once or twice, it's a mindless exercise that at least delivers the goods in the stunt, explosions, and car crash departments, something that I expect its target demographic of adolescent boys will eat up.<p>Cena plays New Orleans cop Danny Fisher, who pretty much single-handedly mana...<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37832">Read the entire review</a></p>
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