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Two short films are included here:versions of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's NewClothes" and "Nightingale." Both are done by MichaelSporn.

"The Emperor's New Clothes"is oddly structured. For one thing, it takes quite a while to getstarted (four minutes, which is a lot in a piece so short). It'spresented as a frame story, with the villagers telling a visitor whathappened last week. There's also a lot of exaggeration in languageand presentation, which sounds odd for a fantasy story, but it justfeels overdone. Stylistically it's odd, because it's told in rhyme(or rather, parts of it are told in rhyme and parts aren't, anawkward combination). What's worse, though, is that the creators ofthe film adaptation seem to have hijacked it for an anti-tax /anti-go...Read the entire review

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With the BBC, you can always counton a fresh and interesting take on the mystery genre. With Rebus,it looks like another solid entrant on the field: no gimmicks, justinteresting stories in well-acted and well-produced presentations.This is the second set of Rebus mysteries, but my firstexposure to them; I found them to be definitely worthwhile.

All four of the feature-lengthmysteries in Rebus Set 2 are based on novels by Ian Rankin, inthe contemporary take on the "hard-boiled" genre. JohnRebus (Ken Stott) is a hard-drinking, tough-minded police detectivein Edinburgh. For Rebus, it's an often bleak and depressing business,with street crime and unemployment on the one hand, and high-levelcorruption and intrigue on the other. The programs' basis in novelsis apparent in their comp...Read the entire review

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Mormonism: what's it all about? Whatdo they really believe, and what is their history? Where doespolygamy come into all this? The latter two questions are answered inreasonable depth in the PBS program The Mormons, but the firstquestion is not even really addressed, let alone to my satisfaction.What results is a program that has some merit as a cultural study,but that leaves far too many stones unturned.

The two-part program focuses mainlyon the history of the Mormons as a cultural group. We learn areasonable amount about Joseph Smith, who started Mormonism with theclaim of a new revelation in 1830, and we follow the Mormons throughthe next century and a half of history. There's an interestingsection on the struggle of Mormon-dominated Utah to become a state,and a substantial discussion of polygamy. There's...Read the entire review

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Two short films are included here:versions of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Red Shoes" and"The Little Match Girl." Both are done by Michael Sporn.

Both are done in a distinctivevisual style. "The Red Shoes" appears in a hand-drawn,pastel-colored style, giving the impression of being drawn by coloredpencils. "The Little Match Girl" is similar in style, butmore sketchy in outline. "The Red Shoes" is somewhat morerealistic, in that the characters' faces and the environment are moredetailed, while "The Little Match Girl" is less detailed.The voice acting and the voiceover narrators are well done: "TheLittle Match Girl," for instance, is narrated by F. MurrayAbraham.

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Kids Love Spanish: Vol. 4: Foodis a short video program that introduces children to Spanish words,with the theme being "food" in this case. The program isbasically a video vocabulary program: for the most part, the programruns through single words like "manzana," "queso,""fruta," etc. The approach taken is to have the words aresaid over and over again by a variety of people, both adults andchildren, backed up by the word being shown in print on-screen. Theuse of a variety of speakers is a good idea,to let the viewer hearthe same word said by a variety of different voices, includingchildren's voices.

However, one problem with this ismost of the speakers here are not native speakers. The two adultsisters have good South American Spanish a...Read the entire review

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Art. What does that make you thinkof? Dead-quiet museum galleries? School field trips? Coffee-tablebooks? Any or all of these can deliver beautiful art to the viewer,but a lot of the time there's also a sense of... well, of the artbeing kind of dead. Embalmed, even, as if the label of "Masterpiece"sucked it dry of vitality. What Simon Schama's series Power of Artdoes is deliver the opposite experience: living art. Hot-blooded,sensual, scary, thrilling, dramatic art. Forget the museum: Power ofArt takes you right there as these masterpieces were being created.There's just one word for the experience of Power of Art, andthat's "Wow!"

Simon Schama, who also did theabsolutely marvelous series History of Britain, sets out hereto get us out of the hushed reverence of the art museum and into whathe c...Read the entire review

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There's a very popular tendencynowadays to emphasize the idea of Islam as a peaceful religion.Islamic terrorists, the idea goes, are extremists who are not beingtrue to the Koran and the teachings of Muhammad. To be sure, thereare many peaceful Muslims in the world; but does that mean that Islamitself is, theologically, peaceful? The documentary Islam: Whatthe West Needs to Know takes on that question with admirableseriousness. It would be easy to slap the label of "intolerant"on an endeavor like this one... but that would be pretty much exactlymissing a key point that the documentary is trying to make. No matterhow much we'd like, in our Western politically correct mindset, forIslam to be just one more great spiritual option that people canbelieve in while living peacefully with people of other faiths. Butis it true? By now, six years after t...Read the entire review

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There are a lot of yoga DVDs out onthe market (and I've reviewed a decent number of them). The KundaliniYoga to Detox and Destress program is a new entry into the fieldthat manages to offer something a bit different. Maya Fiennesprovides workout, approximately an hour long, that fits into theKundalini style of yoga, focusing on the spine and channeling energyappropriately.

The yoga program starts off with anintroduction by Fiennes who explains what the Kundalini yoga style isabout. It feels very New-Agey, with an emphasis on awakeningKundalini energy in preparation for the heart-centered Aquarian Ageof 2012. More specifically, she explains that it focuses on thenervous system and involves both physical actions and chanting.

Viewers who are looking for yoga forits physic...Read the entire review

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Apparently there's a fine linebetween a workout program aimed at women, and soft-core porn aimed atmen... Or at least that's what it seems like in the case of the EnvyGirls Workouts for the Spots that Really Count. What you see onthe cover is basically what you get: four scantily-clad women insuggestive poses. Oh, and a little bit of a workout... but not a goodone.

OK, what's the idea here? The four"Envy Girls," who in very porn-star style are referred toby (fake) first names only, each have a "superpower": greatabs, buns, legs, or arms. (As if these things can come inisolation...) The idea is that we women don't just want to feel good,we also want to look great, or to be more specific, we want to beenvied for our fabulous-looking bodies.

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Better Sex and DeeperRelationships is part of the "Living Well with MontelWilliams" series of life coaching programs. This DVD programpresents three programs, one general motivational piece and two onsex and relationships.

"A Woman's Guide to BetterSex" runs 52 minutes, with Dr. Hilda Hutcherson

Hutchinson is a doctor and magazineadvice columnist about sexual issues. She takes the approach ofde-mystifying sex from the biological point of view as well as arelationship point of view. As the title of the episode indicates,it's definitely addressed to a female audience, focusing on femaleanatomy - the vulva, the labia, the clitoris, the vagina - with anemphasis on female empowerment. There's attention to male parts too,but from the p...Read the entire review

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It's not an easy task to produce aprogram on the Bible that will appeal equally to skeptics andbelievers. The A&E series The Mysteries of the Bible takesa shot at the project, giving us twenty-two episodes exploring theevents described in the Bible and drawing on a variety of points ofview about the material. How successful is it? I'd say that TheMysteries of the Bible is not terribly ambitious, but it doessucceed in doing what it (modestly) sets out to do.

In terms of perspective, TheMysteries of the Bible takes a middle-of-the-road approach.Scholars and religious figures provide their thoughts on the meaningof the material; some take a skeptical approach, while otherscautiously assert the orthodox view. I was pleased to note that allthe interviewees are given enough time to articulat...Read the entire review

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Building a Healthy Family ispart of the "Living Well with Montel Williams" series oflife coaching programs. This DVD program presents three separateprograms, each focusing on one particular aspect of living a healthylife and raising healthy, happy children.

"Who Owns the Definition ofYou?" features talk show host Montel Williams; it runs 35minutes.

The program starts off with atestimonial about Williams' show; it goes on considerably too longand starts to feel cheesy. Fortunately, as soon as it shifts over toWilliams himself, it feels much more grounded. He draws on hisexperience as a talk show host to identify recurring problems inpeoples' lives, as well as on his own experiences as suffering frommultiple sclerosis.

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Dollars & Sense is partof the "Living Well with Montel Williams" series of lifecoaching programs. This DVD set focuses on money-related issues,which particularly interested me since I also write onpersonal-finance topics.

"Finding Your Savage Number"- 47 minutes, with Terry Savage, an author of personal-finance books.

At the start of the program, itseems like it might be a scattershot look at a bunch of differentfinance-related topics. She argues at the start of the program thatthere are two "money personalities": spenders and savers.While there's a lot to be said for understanding the way that yourpersonality affects the way that you relate to finances -- and I'veread some interesting articles and books...Read the entire review

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Exploring the Deserts of theEarth isn't your typical nature documentary. Michael Martin, aphotographer, and Elke Wallner, a filmmaker, take on the challenge ofvisiting all the deserts of the world, in one long trip over 900days. It's a decidedly low-key adventure: the duo ride a motorcyclewith no escort vehicle or special supplies, as they document theirjourney through five continents and fifty countries.

If the word "desert" makesyou think of sand dunes and camels, you've only got a tiny glimpse ofwhat awaits in the Deserts of the Earth. The Sahara, which thefilmmakers call the Queen of Deserts, is only one of many differentkinds of deserts that they visit over the course of almost threeyears. Hot deserts and below-freezing deserts; deserts below sealevel and high above it; yellow ...Read the entire review

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Seinfeld almost didn't havean eighth season, due to the departure of Larry David, who had beenthe co-creator and executive producer of Seinfeld as well as amajor writer for the show. With such a major change, could Seinfeldcontinue on the shoulders of Jerry Seinfeld alone? The answer(fortunately for fans) turned out to be a resounding "yes!"Though Season 8 was actually intended to be the show's final season(hence the symbolism of the little checkered flag behind the Seinfeldlogo), it worked so well that Seinfeld & co. would end up doingone more season to wrap it up.

With Jerry Seinfeld completely atthe helm of Season 8, Seinfeld continues on strong. As I waswatching this eighth season, I couldn't help but be impressed at howconsistently funny this...Read the entire review

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Visions of Scotland isbasically a video tour book. Imagine a helicopter tour of Scotland,minus the vibration and noise of the rotors, and with an affablelocal guide describing the sights as you pass over them, and you'llhave Visions of Scotland to a T.

The main program, which runs 56minutes, is an entirely aerial tour of the bonny country of Scotland.While at first I was unsure how well a birds'-eye view would workwithout on-the-ground camera support, by the end I was convinced thatthe Visions filmmakers know what they're doing. In addition tobroad overviews of the Scottish landscape, we also get fairly closeviews of important buildings and landmarks, with thehelicopter-mounted camera skimming close to the ground or near thebuildings. The overhead view offers a delightful sense of graspingthe ...Read the entire review

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A two-disc special edition DVD ofa... dog show? I admit, that was my first thought about the 131stWestminster Kennel Club Dog Show DVD. My curiosity got the best of meand I had to give it a spin. Don't tell my cats this... but it turnedout to be a pretty fun experience.

Disc 1 presents the first day of ofthe two-day show, with four groups of dogs (working, terrier, toy,non-sporting) being shown. Each of the dogs in the groups hadpreviously gone through a previous round of judging and was declaredthe best in its breed; now, the dogs go against the other breedchampions in their "type" groups. The winner in each groupthen goes on to the final round, for "best of show." Disc 2picks up with the second day of judging, with the remaining threegroups (sporting, herding, and hounds) and ...Read the entire review

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I've reviewed some bad documentariesin my time. In 900-odd reviews to date, some of the stuff I've poppedinto the DVD player has turned out to be real dreck. I've seen many"controversial" programs and many more that took mildlyspeculative stuff and puffed it up with a hefty dose ofsensationalism. I've seen topics that I really liked butchered bypoor argument and ineffective presentation. So it really meanssomething when I say that The Lost Tomb of Jesus is, by far,the worst documentary that I've ever forced myself to sit through.

My main approach in this review is to look at the way the filmmakers handle their material (since to my mind that's the main job of a documentary: to present an informed and balanced look at its material). That can seem like the review is arguing with the material itself... but my objective in raising counter-argum...Read the entire review

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This Beowulf is the real deal- not some action-adventure adaptation (with or without CGImonsters), but a sung performance of the epic poem itself. BenjaminBagby sings in the original Old English of the poem, accompanyinghimself on the Anglo-Saxon harp. The result is a mesmerizing glimpseinto a long-gone world, a chance to thrill to the story of Beowulfand Grendel in something of the same way that listeners did, morethan a thousand years ago.

Beowulf is available inprinted copies in any bookstore, but there are two things to knowabout that paperback in the "classics" section. One is thatit's a translation: the original poem is in Old English, which is acompletely different language than Modern English. (Here's a hint ofhow different it is: Shakespeare's language is actually considere...Read the entire review

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With the feature film The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe having been such a success, it's nowonder there's a renewal of interest in filmed versions of otherbooks in CS Lewis' Narnia series. What's nice about this release onDVD of the BBC production of The Silver Chair is that it'sbeen handled right: released with remastered video and sound, so thatthe 1990 production appears on its best footing.

The Silver Chair is actuallythe fourth volume in the Chronicles of Narnia: following The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and TheVoyage of the 'Dawn Treader'. (As a fantasy scholar - I did myPh.D. dissertation on the fantasy novel - let me assure you that thisreally is the correct ordering of the volumes. The peculiarre-ordering of the Chronicles to put The Magic...Read the entire review

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Treasures of Sacred Art: TuscanJourneys takes viewers on an extensive tour through the Christianart and architecture of Tuscany, from Florence to Siena to Pisa andmore. It's quite an extensive set, with 30 half-hour episodes oversix DVDs; the question is, is it worth spending the time on thisTuscan journey? The answer depends on what you're looking for.

Tuscan Journeys isessentially a set of filmed museum visits, loosely tied together bytourist wanderings from one town to the next. In many of thelocations visited in the program, the episode does in fact literallytake the viewer on a tour through a museum: many of the churches inTuscany have small art collections or associated mini-museums for thepublic. Even in the locations that aren't literally museums, theprograms take a museum-tour-like approach,...Read the entire review

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"Hero or Villain" is anappropriate title for the 2006 Tour de France, with its intense dramaboth during and after the race. There's no middle ground: eitherFloyd Landis is an incredibly inspiring example of determination,courage, and talent, or he's a cheat, a devastating blow to thecredibility of the sport of cycle racing. Which is it? He vehementlyinsists that he's innocent, despite failing a drug test. Meanwhile,the official title of winner bounced from Landis to the second-placefinisher, and then tentatively back to Landis while he appeals. TheDVD coverage of the 2006 Tour de France gives viewers the chance tosee the action of the race firsthand and draw their own conclusionsabout Landis. It's also a thrilling race on other counts: one of thebenefits of sitting back to watch the Tour again after the fact isbeing able to savor the excitement deliv...Read the entire review

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"Hero or Villain" is anappropriate title for the 2006 Tour de France, with its intense dramaboth during and after the race. There's no middle ground: eitherFloyd Landis is an incredibly inspiring example of determination,courage, and talent, or he's a cheat, a devastating blow to thecredibility of the sport of cycle racing. Which is it? He vehementlyinsists that he's innocent, despite two failed drug tests. Meanwhile,the official title of winner bounced from Landis to the second-placefinisher, and then tentatively back to Landis while he appeals. TheDVD coverage of the 2006 Tour de France gives viewers the chance tosee the action of the race firsthand and draw their own conclusionsabout Landis. It's also a thrilling race on other counts: one of thebenefits of sitting back to watch the Tour again after the fact isbeing able to savor the excitement del...Read the entire review

The movie

Every now and then I find a showthat grabs me right from the start and doesn't let go. That was thecase with the firstseason of Without a Trace: I'd never heard any buzz aboutthe show before I reviewed it, but it hooked me from the firstepisode and left me anxiously waiting for the second season to turnup on DVD. The sophomore season can be a tough one, but Without aTrace takes it in stride, delivering one powerful episode afteranother.

Without a Trace has severalthings going for it from the outset. One is a really solid cast.Anthony LaPaglia is a fine actor, and he's put to excellent use hereas Jack Malone, the head of the FBI's New York Missing Persons unit.LaPaglia is completely convincing as a man who's driven by his owninner d...Read the entire review

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The History Channel documentaryDecoding the Past: Secrets of Kabbalah is a program that islikely to please nobody. For viewers who are genuinely interested inthe origins, development, and significance of the mystical practiceknown as Kabbalah, this documentary is short on facts and long onbreathless, empty phrases. For viewers who are less high-minded andjust want the scoop on what this thing is that some Hollywood iconslike Madonna and Britney Spears are interested in, the program alsofails to deliver the goods.

The overall course of the programfocuses on the history of the Kabbalah movement, introducing us inturn to various teachers of Kabbalah through the centuries beforedepositing us in the present day with its upsurge in interest inKabbalah as a "new" approach to spirituality (answers...Read the entire review

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Paris-Roubaix is known as the "Queenof the Classics" and also as the "Hell of the North,"perfectly capturing both sides of the cycling race that captures thehearts of the riders themselves as well as the fans. The race runsover 26 separate sections of pave (cobbled roads) take the ridersthrough a grueling physical challenge. Sometimes there's mud andrain; other times there are choking clouds of dust thrown up by thewheels of the bicycles and the support cars; sometimes the weather isbright and sunny, making this brutal course through the Frenchcountryside deceptively beautiful, like a Sunday club ride. But nomatter what the surface conditions are, all the riders know that itwill take strength, skill, tactics, and a generous helping of luck tobe the first rider to pass the finish line in the velodrome atRoubaix.

The...Read the entire review

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The Spring Classics season is alwaysan exciting one in the professional bicycle racing calendar, withApril in particular often showcasing the "best of the best."That's what we get in this double feature of Liege-Bastogne-Liege andthe Fleche Wallonne: two races and a lot of excitement.

The Belgian classics are oftendominated by the big Belgian teams, who are eager to win on hometurf. The Italians are also usually a force to be reckoned with, asthey've produced many talented single-day racers. Spain, on the otherhand, typically produces riders who excel in stage races, themulti-day or multi-week races like the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia,and Vuelta a España.(Think Miguel Indurain and Pedro Delgado.) The Spanish teams tend tokeep their riders away from the Classics, makin...Read the entire review

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Call me a closet archaeologist. I'vealways enjoyed learning about past civilizations and the mysteries ofhistory: there's a wealth of material in humanity's past that dwarfsthe imagination of the most creative fiction writer. The HistoryChannel documentary series Digging for the Truth capitalizeson the allure of the past, exploring some of the most intriguingpuzzles from the depths of history. The list of topics in Season 2 ofDigging for the Truth includes some really sensational ones:Is the story proposed in The Da Vinci Code really true? What'sup with Stonehenge? What happened to the lost colony of RoanokeIsland?

One of the things I like about theprogram is that the host, Josh Bernstein, makes the science ofanthropology interesting, while also keeping it realistic. This isn'tIndiana Jones, b...Read the entire review

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As far as fashion goes, I'm ajeans-and-t-shirt kind of person. Fortunately, the demands of fashionon college teachers are fairly light: throw a blazer over anyreasonably decent shirt and you'll look suitably professorial. Sowhen it comes to haute couture, all my knowledge comes from watchingThe House of Eliott - fun but not really the basis for anunderstanding of modern fashion, I suspect. I'd heard of Yves SaintLaurent before the DVD titled with his name showed up in my mailbox,but honestly that's about it. (All you folks who are in the knowabout fashion probably just shuddered at my ignorance. I apologize inadvance.)

Yves Saint Laurent: Collector'sEdition is actually a pairing of two documentaries: "HisLife and Times" (77 minutes) and "5th Avenue Marceau"(85 minutes) (There's a "play all" feature a...Read the entire review

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Rosemary & Thyme callsfor a dash more than the usual suspension of disbelief. We have theusual issue of amateur sleuths, which is that bodies turn upunderfoot wherever they go (yet they still get invited toparties...). In addition, in this case, our protagonists are a pairof gardeners called Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme. Silly? A tad. Butit's consistent with the tone of the series, which offers viewers agenerally light-hearted approach to the murder mystery.

A point in favor of the slightlyabsurd premise of flowery-named-gardeners-turned-sleuths is that ourtwo amateur detectives are gardeners as their second career, bringingsavvy from previous careers as a university professor and a policeofficer to their detecting work. Another nice thing about ourprotagonists is that they give us middle-aged wom...Read the entire review

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Looking at a Russian version of KingLear brings up an interesting question. Shakespeare's brilliancein storytelling makes him an author for all times... but what aboutfor all places? One problem with translating Shakespeare is that hisgenius lies to a great extent in his mastery of the language. Hefreely adopted plots and characters from history or other plays orstories, making classics for all time from material that, in otherhands, was merely ordinary. It is in Shakespeare's language that hebrings his characters to life in all their subtlety and complexity,and it's in his language that he sets the drama of humanity sovividly before us. In order to translate Shakespeare properly, thetranslator would need to be the equal of Shakespeare... and I don'tthink any translator would suggest that he's on a par with the Bard!So what do we make of this ...Read the entire review

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Ruth Rendell doesn't have the namerecognition of a, say, Agatha Christie, but she's a writer who hasclaimed a solid place in the modern mystery genre. It's no surprise,then, to see her work be adapted for television. In The RuthRendell Mysteries, Set 1, we get four of her stories: it's achance for new viewers to get a taste of her work, while fans ofRendell's work will be interested in seeing her work brought to life.Rendell is interesting in that she's not the typical "mystery"writer. Really, she's more of what I'd call a "suspense"writer: there may or may not be an actual mystery puzzle to besolved, and there may or may not be a detective involved, but onething is for sure: there's something weird going on.

Set 1 contains four separateepisodes: "Master of the M...Read the entire review

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The Tour of Flanders (the Ronde vanVlaanderen) is pretty much the big race of the season for Belgianbicycle racers... and there are a lot of strong Belgian teams andriders in the pro peloton, making Flanders into a great viewingexperience for racing fans. Taking place on April 2, the Tour ofFlanders fits between Het Volk and Ghent-Wevelgem.

The reigning World Champion, TomBoonen, is of course the star of the show and the favorite right fromthe beginning, riding as he does for the strong QuickStep-Innergeticteam. QuickStep offers Boonen remarkable depth of support, but evenso, there are still serious challengers to Boonen at the start line.Leif Hoste, coming off a win in the Three Days of De Panne, takes upthe challenge, as does US rider George Hincapie, whose determinationand talent have been demonstrated many tim...Read the entire review

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There's something fascinating aboutskateboarding and skate culture, even for total bystanders likemyself. I mean, I'm a female college professor in my 30s - notexactly skateboarding fan club material. (OK, I do live in SouthernCalifornia and find myself saying "dude" surprisinglyoften, so there's a tiny cultural overlap there.) But there'ssomething really interesting about surfing and skateboarding culture,perhaps because they're sub-culture that in many ways serve as amicrocosm of popular culture in general. Rising Son: The Legend ofSkateboarder Christian Hosoi gives a satisfying glimpse into theskateboarding world by following one of its biggest idols through hisrise, fall, and redemption.

Rising Son dovetails beautifullywith another well-known skateboarding documentary, Dogtown andZ-...Read the entire review

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Anyone who's interested in Journeyto the Flames: 8 Years of Burning Man probably already knows theanswer to this question, but it's still worth tossing out there. Whatis Burning Man?

Well, that's a good question.Burning Man is a phenomenon more than a thing (although there's anactual 40-foot Burning Man, whose glowing bone structure graces theDVD cover). See, every year about 35,000 people drive out to astretch of Nevada desert and set up a tent city of gargantuanproportions. It's a city of spontaneous, participant-generated artand music. The participants let it all hang out, and predictably theweek-long Burning Man festival involves a lot of weirdness, sex, anddrugs. (Journey to the Flames is actually very discreet about thatlast bit, but it's pretty obvious that a lot of the participants are...Read the entire review