Stephen Hawco's DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Secrets of the Civil War DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35624 Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:51:20 UTC Recommended

The Documentaries
In October of 1864, 2,500 Union cavalry routed 7,500 Confederates in Kansas and beat them decisively. If you knew that fact before reading it, then Secrets of the Civil War is probably the DVD collection for you. This four-disc collection is from the History Channel and consists of nine documentaries that have already aired on TV. It is an excellent collection, but it's not going to thrill anyone who doesn't have a passion for history. Personally, I found it fascinating.

Now, calling this set "Secrets" is a little misleading, which I'm sure is deliberate. That name makes it sound more intriguing, but the documentaries are not all supposed to be full of new revelations; they simply cover very specific subjects of the American civil war. They are not, technically, even part of the same History Channel series, but their subjects make them ideal for this bo...Read the entire review

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Anamorph DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35577 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:47:29 UTC Recommended

The Film
The similarities between film and painting are profound. In each, two-dimensional space is used as a canvas, and the illusion of depth is created with light and shadow. This comparison is explored in the 2007 IFC film Anamorph from first-time director HS Miller. It functions as a cop movie and a mystery, and its quality and unique subject matter set it apart as somewhat of a hidden gem. It has received a good treatment on its DVD release.

Willem Dafoe plays NYPD Detective Stan Aubray, a single man who spends most of his time alone when he isn't teaching courses at the academy, which he would rather do than work on cases. Aubray is haunted by a case he helped solve five years ago in which a killer nicknamed Uncle Eddie killed people and arranged their bodies as works of art. Aubray blames himself for one of the victims, a prostitute named Crystal (Samantha MacIvor), who...Read the entire review

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Witness to the Mob DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35501 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:57:24 UTC Rent It

The Mini Series
Witness to the Mob is the story of the man who finally brought down John Gotti, the head of New York's Gambino crime family in the 1980's. This NBC mini-series aired on May 10, 1998. The show is billed as being mostly true, with some events and names altered. I can't tell you what really happened, and those of you with a passion for crime stories are going to know more about these events than I do, anyway, but I can tell you what happened according to this series, as written by Stanley Weiser (W.).

The story starts in 1972, when Sammy "The Bull" Gravano (Nicholas Turturro) was just a small-time tough guy on the streets of New York City. He and his friend, Lou (Michael Imperioli), pull off simple jobs, like stealing cars. His toughness earns him some attention from organized crime, and his mentor, Toddo (Philip Baker Hall), teaches him the ropes. Meanwhile...Read the entire review

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The X-Files: I Want to Believe DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35446 Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:32:57 UTC Highly Recommended

The Film
The first portion of this review will be an attempt not to ruin anything significant for those of you who still haven't seen I Want to Believe. A disclaimer will precede the spoiler part of the review, and I will try not to reveal too much about the plot in my review of the DVD itself.

I remember being very excited to see the first "The X-Files" film, Fight the Future, when it came out in 1998. All I had heard about it from friends was that it amounted to a long episode of the TV show. That turned out not to be true, as the quality and the scale of that film blew away anything on TV. The "long episode" criticism is more true of I Want to Believe, the brand new "X-Files" movie that was released theatrically on July 25, 2008. It's coming to 2-disc, special edition DVD on December 2, and this edition contains an extended version of the film, its theatr...Read the entire review

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History of the MLS Cup DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35279 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:21:08 UTC Recommended

The Main Event
For those of you who are soccer fans and DVD Talk readers, we've got one for you. History of MLS Cup tries to advertise for Major League Soccer and educate about its ultimate prize, the Cup. This is a polarizing subject for a couple of reasons. First, soccer, better known as football throughout the world, is only so popular with North Americans. Second, even among rabid soccer fans, Major League Soccer is not the premier league in the world and may not be the preferred league even of fans in the United States. These two factors make my review extremely relative; you'll either love this DVD or not care.

The show gets right to the point and never veers from its path. It immediately starts discussing the first MLS Cup final, which was in October of 1996. (The final features the two remaining teams from the league playoffs, and it is a one match contest.) Using a l...Read the entire review

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Linewatch DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35192 Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:09:55 UTC Rent It

The Movie
When I tell you that Linewatch, a straight-to-DVD movie now available in your local video store, is about a border patrol agent on the US-Mexico border, you will probably assume that the film has something to say. It is probably up to date and politically relevant, most likely a movie that takes a side on the illegal immigration issue. Well, the film is about a border patrol agent, but it has no relevancy whatsoever, and it fails to say anything about the times we live in. In short, it's just another unexceptional movie, saying about as much about illegal immigration and national security as that last "Barney" episode.

The main attraction of this 2008 film is its star, Cub Gooding Jr., who plays Mike "Mad Dog" Dixon. He is the border agent, a man with a strong sense of justice, living in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico with his wife, Angela (Sharon Leal), and daught...Read the entire review

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The 7th Voyage of Sinbad DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35109 Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:00:55 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

The Film
At the holidays of 1958, a wonderful film called The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. It starred the heroic Kerwin Mathews and the lovely Kathryn Grant, and it was directed by Nathan Juran. However, that wasn't what made it stand out. The exceptional special effects and creatures of Ray Harryhausen, the greatest visual effects artist of all time, brought the fantasy film to life. If you've never seen the movie before, you need to check out this new, high quality DVD release.

In the classic Hollywood adventure, a ship has been blown off course by mysterious winds while on a diplomatic mission. The ship's captain, the mighty Sinbad (Mathews), is transporting his betrothed, Princess Parisa (Grant), from her country of Chandra to his home of Baghdad, or "Bagdad" as the intertitle says. After the storm, they stop on the mysterious island of Colossa to gather vittles. Before long, the...Read the entire review

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Antisocial Behaviour DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35037 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:42:25 UTC Skip It

The Movie
Antisocial Behaviour is an independent, British film that amounts to a home video movie you made at your grandmother's house last summer. If you can find this on DVD to purchase, you'll come to see that it's tantamount to a YouTube video of two nerds swinging baseball bats at each other like lightsabers for 45 minutes. And it looks about that good, too.

The plot is simple. Jakob (David Watkins) is a simple man who lives alone in a suburban area of England. The area outside his small house is a popular hangout for local teens. They amount to what are called hoodies in England; they vandalize and disrupt all day. Jakob tells a couple of them off, and in retaliation, they trash his house while he is at church one Sunday. The police are no help, so Jakob ends up taking things into his own hands. A confrontation with one hoodie accidentally results in the boy's death; af...Read the entire review

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How to Rob a Bank DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34897 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:56:52 UTC Recommended

The Movie
No, this is not a self-help video, but How to Rob a Bank is still about self-improvement. This is a short but smart film from IFC Films and newbie director Andrews Jenkins. The 2007 film has been released on DVD by Genius products.

In the film, average guy Jason "Jinx" Taylor (Nick Stahl, Terminator 3) tries to withdraw $20 from his checking account via an ATM. Upon being told that he has insufficient funds, he wanders into the nearest Grant Liberty bank and right into the middle of a bank robbery. When some of the robbers open fire on him, he runs into the open vault, and the door shuts behind him. The vault locks, leaving him and Jessica (Erika Christensen, Swimfan) locked inside. Jessica reveals that she was a hired gun, part of the robbery and in the vault to hack the computer. Jinx and Jessica get to know each other and negotiate with Simon (Gavin ...Read the entire review

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No Blood No Tears DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34809 Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:38:16 UTC Rent It

The Film
No Blood No Tears (Pido nunmuldo eobshi) is a South Korean gangster movie from 2002 from director Ryu Seung-wan. He's most famous in the West for 2006's City of Violence (you know, the DVD that was marketed to look like Sin City in the hope that ignorant Americans would buy it). This film is very entertaining, especially for someone with the right tastes, but the lack of Wetsern knowledge about these films has resulted in another poor marketing/packaging job.

In the movie, Su-ji is a down-on-her-luck cab driver who owes some small-time gangsters money. Her only goal in life is to get her young daughter back, who was taken by her traitorous husband. Meanwhile, Kyeong-seon is an abused and used young woman who wants to be a pop idol. Her worthless boyfriend, Dok-bul, is busy trying to make it big as a gangster when he isn't manhandling her. A chance ...Read the entire review

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Desperately Seeking Paul Mccartney DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34669 Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:15:08 UTC Skip It

The Documentary
Imagine going to the grocery store and they're totally out of milk. You don't want to leave empty handed, so you decide to wait around until you can talk to the manager. The nice person informs you that the store won't get any more milk in until the next morning. Having just wasted a whole 15 minutes of your life trying to find a gallon, you make the crazy decision to drive five minutes away and find some milk at a gas station. Would you say that your actions were desperate? Were you desperately seeking milk? No, I don't think so either, but the search for the handsome Beatle in the documentary Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney is on par with your shopping trip in excitement.

The doc opens with actual news footage from 1965 when Ruth Anson-Sowby interviewed Paul McCartney for ABC News. He jokingly proposed to her, catching everyone off guard. Desper...Read the entire review

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Bait Shop DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34636 Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:22:00 UTC Skip It

The Movie
In the vein of Witless Protection comes Baitshop, another production from 2008 that capitalizes on redneck stereotypes. It's essentially a family-friendly comedy, but no one in the family will laugh at it. The straight to video movie feels thrown together, and its two big name stars, Bill Engvall and Billy Ray Cyrus, don't have the charisma to make it appealing.

Engvall plays Bill Dugan, a former professional fisherman who now runs the local bait shop in the lakeside town of Paradise, Florida. His business and his relationships are put in jeopardy as soon as Hot Rod Johnson (Cyrus), the hottest thing in professional bass fishing, comes to town. He opens his own fishing store and starts spending time with Bill's son, Scott (Vincent Martella). To save his store and his home, Bill has to enter the Paradise Lake Invitational tournament and catch bigger bass than Hot...Read the entire review

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Blood and Wine: A Brazilian Story DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34532 Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:29:00 UTC Rent It

The Film
A moving story about the oppression of the people, Blood and Wine: A Brazilian Story is a 2006 film made in Brazil (so don't get it mixed up with the 1996 Jack Nicholson movie). Its language is Portuguese, making it very unlikely that North American audiences will be able to understand it without subtitles. However, the theme is largely universal, and that is the only chance this Cinema Epoch DVD has of holding one's attention.

The core of the film takes place in 1959 through 1961 in the city of Goiana. Mateus, a young family man, asks a loan shark for money for his restaurant. The business takes off, despite Mateus' left wing convictions, but soon he and his patrons are being hassled by the corrupt police captain, Ranieri. Mateus and his wife, Antonia, deal with various family matters, like the death of Mateus' mother, and we kind of just follow them through life as th...Read the entire review

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Sunset Tan: Season 1 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34472 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:17:45 UTC Skip It

The Show
I have a confession to start with: I don't have cable or satellite TV. It's good to have that off my chest, but the point is that I miss a lot of the mindless reality television that the rest of America gets to enjoy. Flipping around channels at friends' houses, I've gotten glimpses of a lot of it, but I've never really been able to effectively rot my brain over a whole season (or seasons) of a reality show. However, DVD releases of these shows, especially the ones like E!'s Sunset Tan, have leveled the playing field.

Sunset Tan is the name of a tanning salon chain in southern California. The show follows the crazy, dramatic, bronzed exploits of the Los Angeles chain's employees and owners. Jeff and Devin are the California personalities that enjoy the lifestyle of the area and co-own Sunset Tan. Janelle is the tall, moody manager who is one of the company's senior emp...Read the entire review

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Only the Valiant DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34353 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:26:53 UTC Recommended

The Film
As a lover of Westerns, I've got to give Lionsgate credit for at least giving the genre a chance, like with the 3:10 to Yuma remake. Now, they've released Only the Valiant on DVD, a Western from 1951 starring Gregory Peck. The film is charming for its classic qualities, which also could make it relatively laughable to modern audiences. Regardless, the timeless feel of the film as a Western from the genre's golden era make it worth a purchase on DVD.

It's set in New Mexico, where Apache attacks have the US Cavalry on the defense. The ill-named Fort Invincible is overrun and all of its men slaughtered, and Captain Lance (Peck) leads the clean-up crew. The soldiers capture a powerful Apache leader, Tucsos, who had tarried too long there. After returning to the stronger Fort Winston, Lance is told that it is his responsibility to escort Tucsos out of the territory, ...Read the entire review

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Wasted DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34351 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:26:53 UTC Recommended

The Film
If I were to write a movie and really express what I thought of people, the result would be something like 2006's Wasted but with less profanity. A teen movie all grown up and facing the facts of life and its own vulnerability, Wasted is an enjoyable drama by young director Matt Oates about what happens when young people come home again and discover that life changes as their lives re-intersect.

The movie is set in the small, northern California town of North Valley. The year is 1996, (hello, big cell phones!) and three friends have reunited for a weekend because of a funeral. Stan (Eddie Kaye Thomas, American Pie) is the sweet, average guy who never left town but is content with his situation. He just wants to find a girl who loves him for himself. Mitch (Kip Perdue) is the successful, attractive one, back from his senior year of college. Dixon (Josh Coo...Read the entire review

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Hybrid DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34111 Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:40:31 UTC Skip It

The Movie
A Canadian-produced TV movie consisting of a little bit of narrative between myriad shots of wolves running through wilderness, Hybrid is cheap, uncaptivating horror. This is part of the Maneater series of DVD's, but I hope it isn't representative of the quality of the rest of the movies. No people are eaten in this pseudo-werewolf film, and the first mauling takes place two thirds of the way through the total running time. All of Hybrid's shortcomings epitomize what happens with low-budget films, and its poor treatment on home video make this a disc you'll want to avoid.

Wolves.

The story begins with Dr. Hewlett (Justine Bateman), who works at the Olaris Medical Research Facility. She has successfully transplanted various organs between animal species, and she's ready to try doing so with humans. Meanwhile, Lydia (Tinsel Korey), a young woman of Native...Read the entire review

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21 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34036 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:43:51 UTC Highly Recommended

The Film
21 is a new blackjack movie from Columbia pictures, and the DVD gives viewers more than enough Las Vegas to last a while. Loosely based on the book Bringing Down the House by reporter Ben Mezrich about real-life MIT students who won millions of dollars at Vegas Casinos by counting blackjack cards, 21 (the number you're aiming for when you play blackjack) is fun entertainment with a little bit of brains to go with it. There are, indeed, great perfromances and some good writing, but the real star of the film is Sin City, which 21 uses at least as well as any Ocean film.

Ben Campbell (Brit Jim Sturgess) is a Boston native who is drawing near to the end of his time at MIT and looking forward to going to Harvard Medical School. However, the brilliant Ben can't afford the $300 thousand required, so his life is about to fall apart. One of his new pro...Read the entire review

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Death on Demand DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33982 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:19:02 UTC Skip It

The Movie
Whether an artistically legitimate genre or not, I've never felt that horror deserves the bad rap it gets. However, I've been wrong about a lot of things. As bad as if a college student threw the infamous Shannon Elizabeth webcam scene from American Pie into a blender and then dumped a whole lot of voyeurism horror (think Halloween: Resurrection) on top of it, Death on Demand is cheap, independent horror that manages to be watchable (barely) but little else.

The movie begins with the flashback of the night Sean McIntyre (Jerry Broome) went crazy. An ice climber who lost his mind while on top of a mountain, he graphically slaughters his whole family in their house and then kills himself. Fast forward to the present, and rich kid Rich (Dan Falcone) is trying to cash in by hosting a reality show-sort of webcam broadcast for college students from the McIntyre ...Read the entire review

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East LA Marine DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33910 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:46:29 UTC Recommended

The Documentary
Don't worry. You won't regret clicking on the link to read the review of East LA Marine. While the title sounds like a good name for some stupid, low-budget action film starring Dolph Lundgren, East LA Marine: The Untold True Story of Guy Gabaldon is actually a captivating documentary about a real life, World War II veteran who fought in the Pacific. His fame was earned because of the amount of Japanese soldiers that he singlehandedly captured, each one a remarkable achievement.

The documentary takes standard form; it begins towards the end of its story and tells you some of the main facts about Gabaldon. The narration, constant throughout the film, is by Freddie Prinze Jr., which is good in a lot of ways, giving mainstream Hollywood legitimacy to this small documentary (which you can't even find on IMDB) and also showing that young superstars like Prinze r...Read the entire review

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Lake Placid 2 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33771 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:35:21 UTC Skip It

"We'll Fix it in Post!":
From producers UFO International and the Sci-Fi Channel comes a real big croc. The supposed sequel to 1999's weak Lake Placid, Lake Placid 2 is a medium budget, made-for-TV monster movie about huge crocodiles terrorizing small town white people. This DVD is an unrated version, containing more graphic content than they could have shown when it originally aired on standard cable in 2007. Extra footge or not, the movie still isn't worth the effort of pressing play.

It takes place in the town of Aroostook, Maine, at a lake that isn't even supposed to be Lake Placid, New York. The first movie featured 30 foot crocodiles that lived in the lake and grew off of whole cows fed to them by a crazy old woman. The sequel features an entirely new cast, and this time there are even more giant crocs than before. The opening scene is the token ambiguous killing, ...Read the entire review

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Raising Flagg DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33725 Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:41:57 UTC Rent It

The Movie
A bare-bones, competently done independent motion picture, Raising Flagg is the story of a man who needs to be awoken in more ways than one. A charming little comedy starring Alan Arkin, it might be just too mundane for some viewers. The film deserves a better DVD release than the one I saw, so let's hope it wasn't the commercial one.

Arkin plays Flagg Purdy, a crotchety old man in a small northwestern town. The town's handyman, he's also the most opinionated person there. Flagg's family has been using the water from his old friend Gus's (Austin Pendleton) well for a long time, and when Gus lets sheep graze near the well, Flagg sues him to prevent their urine from getting into the water. He wins the case, but the town rejects him as a troublemaker, and his career as the town handyman dries up. When he comes to understand that no one wants to be around him anymore, he ...Read the entire review

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Penelope DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33659 Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:24:53 UTC Recommended

The Film

Once upon a time, there was a rich family called the Cobblepots...er, Wilherns, who were cursed to give birth to a deformed, freakish child. One day, the couple couldn't handle the strain anymore, so they hid the child away from the whole world. Penelope is a modern fairy tale, an ugly duckling story about what happens when the child grows up and faces the world and its realities.

Christina Ricci plays the title character, who is now 25 and still waiting for her curse to be broken. She is a regular person but with a pig's nose and ears, the result of a curse put on her family by a witch, long ago. The only way for the curse to be broken is for a blue blood (person of the rich class, of which the Wilherns are a part) to fall in love with her. Suitor after suitor run away from her, but when one of them, Max (James "So Hot Right Now" McAvoy), is hired by a reporter to infil...Read the entire review

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The Magnificent Seven: The Complete Series DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33499 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:06:13 UTC Rent It

In 1954, Akira Kurosawa redefined jidaigeki in Japan and set a new worldwide standard for film with Shichinin no samurai. Seven Samurai was a three-and-a-half hour epic that told the story of seven ronin who agree to defend a small farming village from pillaging bandits.

In 1960, Hollywood saw the value of Seven Samurai's wonderful script and decided to cash in. Purchasing the rights for a ludicrous $500, The Mirisch Company transposed the film to the American West and produced The Magnificent Seven, a John Sturges film that was a close remake. Seven gunslingers now protected a Mexican village from marauding banditos, and with the popularity of the film, the foundation was set for a lot of remakes of a remake.

The Show

In 1998, CBS decided to morph Sturges' film into a TV show. (What else would one do with a Western?) Enter "The Magnificent Seven," the seri...Read the entire review

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Sharpshooter DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33424 Fri, 30 May 2008 19:11:37 UTC Rent It

The Movie
This is a new DVD release of a TV movie called Sharpshooter. It is the pretty clichéd story of a US Black Ops sniper who wants to retire but is convinced to perform just one more job. To answer your questions: no, this is not the Antoine Fuqua film called Shooter starring Mark Wahlberg, and yes, this is like a poor man's Shooter. The DVD contains nothing but the film, so you'll have to be a big fan to spend money on it.

We begin with our protagonist sniper, Dillon (James Remar), as he rescues some anonymous, important Westerner from Arabs in the Middle East. He then travels back to the United States, where his longtime friend Flick (Mario Van Peebles) convinces him that his country needs him just one more time before he retires in peace. Dillon, of course, reluctantly agrees, and he heads for the small town of Julian, California. (And Sharpshooter was actually shot in Julia...Read the entire review

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Numb DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33422 Fri, 30 May 2008 18:12:43 UTC Recommended

The Film
Numb is a hard movie to peg, but if we must do so with this quirky drama, let's say it falls somewhere within the realm of a romantic comedy. The humor hardly ever comes from the romantic aspects of the story, however; it comes from Matthew Perry and his performance, the real selling points of this quality DVD. Writer/director Harris Goldberg has gone under the radar and come out with an amiable film about dysfunction and how people deal with it.

Perry, who became a star playing Chandler on "Friends," is wonderfully numb as Hudson Milbank, an LA writer who has begun to feel disconnected. While he has always been an anxious person, his recent attempt to smoke pot to feel better has triggered a huge problem, which turns out to be depersonalization disorder. The disorder makes a person feel constantly disconnected, like they are an observer to their own mental and physical process...Read the entire review

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The Shadow Riders DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33421 Fri, 30 May 2008 18:12:43 UTC Rent It

The Movie
Television took over the Western and gave us things like The Shadow Riders. A TV movie originally aired in September of 1982, it stars Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, and Katharine Ross. It's on DVD for the first time now, but in light of the majesty of Westerns past, it isn't worth investing in unless you absolutely love cowboy movies or one of those three performers.

One of the many Western productions based on a story by Louis L'Amour (The Quick and the Dead), The Shadow Riders takes place at the tail end of the Civil War. Mac Traven (Selleck) heads home after fighting for the Union, and so does his brother, Dal (Elliott), a Rebel. When they reach their parents' house in Big Springs, Texas, they find that some friends and family members have been kidnapped by a group of renegade Confederates who plan to sell them as slaves and whores in Mexico. Two Traven daughters and one son, ...Read the entire review

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Hamburger Hill DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33333 Fri, 23 May 2008 19:02:37 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie
One of a myriad of late-80's Vietnam War films, Hamburger Hill showed Vietnam for the hell that it was. Lions Gate released a 20th Anniversary Edition DVD of this RKO classic on May 20, 2008, (a little late, since the film was originally released in August of 1987) and they've done a great job with the film. This DVD is a worthwhile, easily recommendable version of one of the most famous war films of all time, and it has much better features than the 2001 DVD version.

Hamburger Hill follows the members of the 101st Airborne, 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon in their 1969 campaign in the Ashau Valley. There, they spent ten bloody days trying to take Hill 937, the place that would come to be known as Hamburger Hill because of the amount of carnage there. This is the same 101st Airborne seen in features like Band of Brothers and We Were Soldiers, and in Vietnam they were flying on helicopt...Read the entire review

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Silver Man DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33112 Sat, 03 May 2008 15:49:38 UTC Rent It

The Movie:
Silver Man (2000) is an uneven film about a bunch of unbalanced people. Much like the characters in this film learning not to judge a man by the color of his skin, you can't judge this DVD by its cover. While it's marketed as a mob movie with lots of action, it's actually a drama with just a little bit of kung fu.

Silver Man is very much a Canadian movie, Canadian-produced and shot in Toronto, using a lot of Canadian actors. It's a low budget movie, with no CG or explosions, but it has a few big name actors in it (Eugene Levy, Daniel Baldwin, Joe Pantoliano), and it stays entertaining, being a good effort for director Peter Foldy.

In the film, a young man (Paul Popowich) with a birth defect that keeps all of his skin a dak grey color calls himself the Silver Man and plays the violin in public to survive. He lives by himself in a small apartment near the shore of Lake Ontari...Read the entire review

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The Listening DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33111 Sat, 03 May 2008 15:49:38 UTC Recommended

The Movie:
Do you ever feel that someone out there is listening to you without your permission? The Listening is an Italian-made espionage thriller about the spying capabilities of the United States and the abuse of those capabilities by corrupt people in power. A film of wonderful production values, The Listening concentrates on spying technology being used by the US National Security Agency, but it also makes a story of global proportions personal, and quite relevant. The movie looks good and is a pleasure to watch.

The story follows Jim Wagley (Michael Parks), a high level NSA technician stationed in England. He works at the headquarters of Echelon, a multi-billion dollar surveillance system that listens in on phone calls all over the world for key words that could signify national security threats to the United States or its allies. Wagley is a man of conviction who, at the beginni...Read the entire review

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Cruel World DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33000 Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:33:30 UTC Skip It

The Movie:
Cruel World is a cheaply made 2005 horror film about a reality show gone wrong. It essentially amounts to MTV's "The Real World" crossed with a slasher film, with a little bit of gorno mixed in. It's almost as exploitative as it sounds, but not quite. It's relatively postmodern about the reality T.V. part; in one scene, the show's contestants each name the reality T.V. stereotype they fulfill. This is clever, but then the Asian girl turns out to know martial arts, so, in a sense, Cruel World becomes the crap it satirizes.

In the movie, Phillip (Edward Furlong) has been dumped by the lovely Catherine (Jaime Pressly) on a reality show called, "Lover's Lane." Seeking revenge, he comes to the home that Catherine and her new lover live in, courtesy of the network that financed "Lover's Lane," and he arranges for a new reality show to be filmed there. Nine college students have b...Read the entire review

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Alex Kovalev - My Training Methods DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/32999 Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:33:30 UTC Recommended

The Content:
Alexei Kovalev is a Russian-born NHL star who currently plays for the Montreal Canadiens. This DVD is his training video for hockey players, and it also involves a lot of tips for getting your body in shape. Kovalev helped my beloved Rangers win the Stanley Cup in 1994, so I'm all for anything he's involved with.

Disc one of the DVD is split up into two main sections: the hockey drills and the body exercises. On the ice, Kovalev talks to the camera, explaining what he is about to do, and then he does it with continued voiceover narration. In the training sections, his personal trainer, Tommy Sheehan, joins him and narrates while Kovalev performs in the background, which is made to look like, of all things, the middle of a soccer field.

A hockey fanatic may want to watch this DVD just to see Kovalev's skill, but other than that, only hockey players in training need watch t...Read the entire review

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Ice Age - The Meltdown DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/32894 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:11:03 UTC Recommended

The Movie:
Fox has released an updated DVD of Ice Age: The Meltdown that includes a bonus disc with a preview of Horton Hears a Who, and it gives DVD Talk the perfect opportunity to discuss the final version of the home video release. Thomas Spurlin has already written a great review of The Meltdown based on a Fox preview disc, but my review was based on a consumer copy, so I can finally bring you the details on the quality of the image and such.

In the original Ice Age (2002), a ragtag group of prehistoric animals have to save a human baby from a group of saber-toothed tigers. Manny (Ray Romano), a wooly mammoth, leads the silly sloth, Sid (John Leguizamo, reprising his best role ever), and the duplicitous saber-toothed tiger, Diego (Dennis Leary), as they attempt to return the lost child to a tribe of humans. In the end, Diego does the right thing and saves the day for the good guys, a...Read the entire review

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Magus DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/32852 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:37:32 UTC Skip It

The Movie:
One of the wonderful things about advances in home video technology is that everyone can get in on the art of filmmaking; it's no longer exclusively in the hands of studios. Magus is a movie made independently in L.A., and I would like to give director John Lechago and his cadre credit for getting this done.

In Magus, we learn that there have always been magic users living among us, and their code has kept them anonymous for centuries. One magician, Fernos (Ron Fitzgerald), has made himself the titular Magus by deciding his lust for power is more important than the code. The Magus is the one who risks the safety of all the other magic users by going on a power trip, and Fernos is soon killing any magicians who stand in his way.

Fernos' story is told parallel to that of Felix (Bill Steele), and old, benevolent magician whose only skill had been healing. However, his wife's ...Read the entire review

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The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing The Dream DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/32853 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:37:32 UTC Rent It

The Movie
I can't imagine a more polarizing sport (activity? hobby?) than figure skating. It seems to me that the ruling powers of the sport are always trying to make it appeal to a wider audience, but when we get down to the harsh reality of it, the Olympics are the only thing that draw significant attention to figure skating. Hollywood has figured out that there are four years of untapped potential in between each Olympiad, and so they have bestowed upon the world the Cutting Edge films. The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream is the third movie in the series.

The original film, The Cutting Edge, was a romantic comedy released in 1992 that starred D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelley as reluctant pairs partners, thrown together by fate and learning to work as a team. Of course, romance eventually ensues. Fast forward an entire fourteen years (come on, Hollywood, what took you so long?), and we ...Read the entire review

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