DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Life with Derek: The Complete Third Season DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/41500 Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:13:46 UTC Rent It

Review:

A Disney Channel series that was produced in Canada and ran for four seasons, "Life With Derek" most resembles a modern "Brady Bunch", taking the structure of the classic with a modern setting and attitudes - rather than making any sort of attempt to get along, the children constantly bicker with one another and try to set boundaries in a house that seems awfully small.

The series focuses on George (John Ralston) and Nora (Joy Tanner), two adults who get married and bring children to the table: he has Derek; Edwin and Marti, while Nora has two daughters - Casey and Lizzie - who aren't thrilled at the prospects of moving into George's now smaller house. While the children don't always get along, the battle is largely between Derek (Michael Seater) and Casey (Ashley Leggat). While the parents have never been happier, the oldest children who can't go a few minutes without a sq...Read the entire review

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McLeod's Daughters - The Complete Eighth Season DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37607 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:00:15 UTC Rent It

They almost pull off a halfway-decent return to form here, before ending the series for good. E1 Entertainment has released McLeod's Daughters - The Complete Eight Season, the final go-around for what was once Australia's top-rated nighttime drama. Those halcyon days are long gone here as the writers revamp old situations and characters one more time before hurriedly killing off the series. A marked downturn in ridiculous New Agey-spookums has thankfully occurred, but it's all too little, too late for this final season of McLeod's Daughters.

Why anyone reading this review at this point in the series' progression would need a plot synopsis is beyond me...so I won't give one (or at least a detailed one). So, there's this cattle/sheep ranch, Drove...Read the entire review

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Gigantor - The Collection - Volume 1 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37398 Thu, 28 May 2009 12:27:43 UTC Recommended

Gi-gan-tor!
Gi-gan-tor!
Gi-ga-ah-ahn-tor!
Bigger than big! Taller than tall!
Quicker than quick! Stronger than strong!
Ready to fight for right - against wrong!


Along with Astroboy (Tetsuwan atomu, 1963-66), Speed Racer (Mahha GoGoGo, 1966-68), and Kimba the White Lion (Jyanguru taitei, 1965-66) - Gigantor (Tetsujin 28-go, or "Iron Man #28," 1963-66) introduced Japanese anime to American audiences for the first time.

Not that American adults were particularly receptive. Probably at least in part due to Gigantor's grating theme song - it's like something African natives would chant in a cheap Jungle Jim movie, and quite unlike the snappier themes adapted for Speed Racer and Kimba - but also due in part to cultural differences and varying expectations for animated cartoons, critics and m...Read the entire review

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Misty DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36993 Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:08:02 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

BASED ON THE NEWBERY HONOR AWARD-WINNING NOVEL "MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE" BY MARGUERITE HENRY

Koch Vision's DVD cover art for their release of the 1961 children's movie Misty proclaims the above in large lettering on the back. While I can't honestly say that I've read the book (and obviously can't judge how well the film adapts it), I'll trust the rave customer reviews on Amazon's web site that suggest it is a well-remembered classic - and hope this modest effort to adapt the novel would satisfy readers with fond memories of it.

What strikes me about Misty, the movie, is that it's clear I'm viewing it nearly five decades ...Read the entire review

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The Baron - The Complete Series DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36703 Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:04:23 UTC Highly Recommended

Although British television producer ITC's The Saint and Danger Man/Secret Agent are fairly well-known to American audiences, The Baron (1966-67) is virtually forgotten despite the fact that it had an American star, actor Steve Forrest, who later found lasting fame on shows like S.W.A.T. and Dallas. Sort of a cross between a '60s spy show and a hard-boiled detective series (note the retro packaging, like a pulp-novel) and filmed in ITC's extremely polished house style, its release is a happy surprise. If you're a fan of Danger Man or The Saint, chances are you'll really enjoy this, too.


Very loosely adapted from the books of John Creasey/Anthony Morton, The Baron is the nickname given John Mannering (Steve ...Read the entire review

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Gulliver's Travels (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36689 Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:37:18 UTC Rent It

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Walt Disney stayed ahead of his competition by any means possible; through much of the 1930s he enjoyed an exclusive contractual lock on the 3-strip Technicolor process for animation. The enormous success of Disney's bold gamble Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs didn't result in a flood of feature-length animated movies. The only studio to step up to the plate was Paramount. They had a close association with Max and Dave Fleischer, animation veterans that started before Disney and pioneered many of the basic processes of the craft.

1939's Gulliver's Travels was the first non-Disney full-length animated feature. History has unfairly relegated it to an also-ran slot. An expected simplification of Jonathan Swift's 1726 satire, the movie's wistful pacifist theme probably didn't help its box office chances in 1939, when the entir...Read the entire review

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Groom Lake DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36610 Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:04:24 UTC Skip It

Okay, so here's a recap of the first ten minutes of Groom Lake, a no-budget alien invasion flick-slash-tale of undying love produced, written, directed by -- hell, and even starring! -- William Shatner: a trucker barks at the sky like a deaf seal until his hands glow purple, Angel's Amy Acker turns up in a weepy Calvin Klein ad where it's revealed she's about to keel over from lupus, a condom balloon is popped by stock footage of a rattlesnake, and a knife fight in a sleepy desert town pitstop ends with a redneck shouting, "freak you!" Just to say it again...? The counter's not even in the double digits, and I'm already at a loss.

There's kind of a story churning around in here somewhere about a couple of young lovers pitted against lupus, sheer mountain faces in an '88 Suzuki, cowpoke gangrape, hot pursuit by government agents tooling around in a fleet of '74 Buicks, genitelia-l...Read the entire review

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Desert Victory: The Battle of Alamein DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36583 Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:42:33 UTC Recommended

The Movie:
London's Imperial War Museum is one of the most impressively vast collections in the world of archival data in various forms on man's apparent inability to "just get along." Originally founded to document Britain and Canada's involvement in The Great War (WWI), the museum has kept pace with each succeeding conflict, amassing huge amounts of material just in its film archive alone. That archive has been used for many relatively recent compilations like the classic The World at War series, segments of which are still being hawked today by Time-Life Videos. However, the archive also maintains some fascinating material shot during WWII and released either during that conflict, or directly after it, and the Museum is now releasing these in a new series which includes this title.

I was born to one of the members of "The Greatest Generation," and my father was a much decorated...Read the entire review

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Imperial War Museum: The True Glory - From D-Day to the Fall of Berlin DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36571 Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:55:13 UTC Recommended

The Movie:
London's Imperial War Museum is one of the most impressively vast collections in the world of archival data in various forms on man's apparent inability to "just get along." Originally founded to document Britain and Canada's involvement in The Great War (WWI), the museum has kept pace with each succeeding conflict, amassing huge amounts of material just in its film archive alone. That archive has been used for many relatively recent compilations like the classic The World at War series, segments of which are still being hawked today by Time-Life Videos. However, the archive also maintains some fascinating material shot during WWII and released either during that conflict, or directly after it, and the Museum is now releasing these in a new series which includes this title.

Although the insert states that many of the documentaries "have never been released to the public...Read the entire review

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Iowa DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36554 Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:14:26 UTC Skip It

Drugs are bad. People addicted and under the influence of drugs are often prone to poor decision making. Abusing and selling drugs is illegal and it could lead towards such unsavory things as rape, murder, incarceration, making out with goth strippers, and getting your penis burned off. Thats pretty much the gist of 2005's crime, drug, shock, indie flick Iowa.

With hair by clipper guard #3, cowboy shirt wearing, El Camino driving, Esper (writer, producer, director, Matt Farnsworth) has just lost his father who left him a healthy life insurance policy and a murderous stepmom (Rosanna Arquette) with an evil cop lover (Micheal T. Weiss) out to get the cash. Esper's pops also had a healthy meth lab which inspires Esper to go into the meth business along with his girlfriend Donna (Diane Foster). They steal a "Meth Manufacturing for Dummies" manual and rope his best friend and a underworld connected...Read the entire review

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Max Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36545 Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:38:36 UTC Rent It

THE MOVIE:

Animation fans will always lament that the Fleischer Studios never got the fair shake they deserved in competing with their rivals at Disney, but DVD is offering a whole new generation a chance to see their classic work as never before. In addition to Warner Bros.' already released Popeye collections and the forthcoming set of their awesome Superman cartoons, Koch has now released a souped-up, restored version of the Fleischers' 1939 full-length adaptation of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Though, before you get too excited, please check the video assessment below, as there are some issues with aspect ratio and overall quality that are a bit perplexing.

Most folks are likely familiar with the Gulliver story, or at least with the ...Read the entire review

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What Makes Sammy Run? DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36236 Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:10:05 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

"Tears are for losers. What kind of a sissy word is 'fair?'"

An event. The second TV adaptation of Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run?, the most infamous, the most searing Hollywood insider novel ever, has been restored to its full length and released onto DVD by The Archive of American Television and Koch Entertainment. What Makes Sammy Run?, directed by Marty helmer Delbert Mann, and co-starring John Forsythe, Barbara Rush, Dina Merrill, and Larry Blyden in a simply astounding turn as the amoral, hustling Sammy Glick, is just as potent and forceful an evocation of the backstabbing jungle that is Hollywood, as you're ever likely to see - which is quite a feat when you consider this taped production originally aired back in 1959...Read the entire review

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Hero Ain't Nothin But a Sandwich DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36181 Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:40:12 UTC Recommended

The Film:
Alice Childress' novel A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich came out when I was a kid, but because it wasn't a comic book, I never bothered to read it. But I do recall that the novel raised quite a stink when it came out, and that some of my teachers told me and my classmates that it was an unacceptable book for us to read. Knowing that some of my teachers didn't approve of the book made me almost want to read it, but like I said, at that point in my life I was on a literary diet of nothing but comic books.

Larry B. Scott, best remembered for his roles in Revenge of the Nerds and Fear of a Black Hat, stars as Benjie, a smarter-than-average 13 year-old, who lives with his mother, Sweets (Cicely Tyson), and his grandmother (Helen Martin). On the surface, Benjie seems to have a good life, but he harbors deep resentment and abandonment issues over his father havin...Read the entire review

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Dennis Potter: 3 to Remember DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36143 Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:32:11 UTC Recommended

The Movie:
Dennis Potter, the late British writer probably best remembered for his epic Singing Detective, excelled at peeling back the layers of façade and persona in the British ruling class, often revealing the rot underneath. It's no mere coincidence that Detective, for example, prominently features a disabling skin disease (from which Potter himself famously suffered), literally exposing its hero to things probably better left unseen. That same penchant for revelatory introspection highlights 3 to Remember, a compilation of a trio of 1980 television films made for London Weekend Television and showing Potter working on smaller canvasses than his longer form Detective and Pennies from Heaven. All three of these films offer superb performances, if dour subject matters and sometimes disturbing content.

The best of the three is "Blade on the Feather" ...Read the entire review

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Captains and the Kings DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36036 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:05:02 UTC Rent It

A sprawling, dynastic TV melodrama, simply if often erratically told and performed. Koch Vision has released Captains and the Kings, the 1976 NBC miniseries based on the Taylor Caldwell best-seller that followed the Kennedy-esque fortunes of the Irish Catholic Armagh family from the mid-19th to early 20th century, while spinning a complicated conspiracy theory of international skullduggery. Starring an immense cast of familiar TV and movie favorites (along with some then-newcomers), Captains and the Kings probably plays best for those who fondly remember this early miniseries, or for fans of that particular genre.

The plot for Captains and the Kings is far too involved (the miniseries runs over eight hours long) to warrant anything more than a br...Read the entire review

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Studio One Anthology DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35844 Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:29:09 UTC Highly Recommended

Remarkable. Koch Vision, in association with The Archive of American Television, has released Studio One Anthology, a six-disc, 17-play collection representing the "golden age" of live network television anthology drama from one of the most well-regarded examples of that short-lived genre: CBS's Studio One, which ran from 1948 to 1958. Plays (and one opera) included in this collection are: Gian-Carlo Menotti's The Medium; Williams Shakespeare's Julius Caesar; Ring Lardner, Jr.'s and George S. Kaufman's June Moon; Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights; Michael Dyne's Pontius Pilate; McKnight Malmar's The Storm; George Orwell's 1984; George Axelrod's Confessions of a Nervous Man; Reginald Rose's The Remarkable Incident at Carson Corners; Gore Vidal's Dark Possession; Reginald Rose's The Death and Life of Larry Benson...Read the entire review

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Blue Blood DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35778 Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:04:17 UTC Recommended



The Film:

Whether you want to look at the Cummings Brothers' film under its more recognizable name If I Didn't Care (referencing the Ink Spots song played at the opening) or this bizarrely-referential Blue Blood (something that might tie onto the cutthroat nature of royal families in the Middle Ages), processing the significance behind the title will be the first move in a string of cranial gear cranks when absorbing their picture. Which can be a good thing, especially when you're about to dive into a maze-like murder mystery in the vein of ole' Alfred himself. Standing true to its moniker as a "Hitchcockian" noir, Blue Blood feeds off character nuance and plot convolution to build its minor empire of passion and deceit -- all in pr...Read the entire review

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The Royal Air Force at War: The Unseen Films 1940-1944 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35710 Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:37:29 UTC Recommended

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Fans of WW2 docus are always on the lookout for something new, and Koch Vision's The Royal Air Force At War: The Unseen Films 1940-1944 delivers exactly what they want to see. This collection of 24 training and public information short subjects was filmed during the war. They are all uncut just as the R.A.F. squadrons and local cinema audiences saw them. In other words, hint, hint, if you have a member of the family building an airplane model in the next room, your gift possibilities just went up by a notch.

If you know someone who cares about this kind of film, you'll know what I'm talking about -- they aren't interested in the same 30 shots of the London Blitz, where the camera trucks into the glass doors of a shop to see the blaze within. The Unseen Filmscontains out-of-the-ordinary footage of every imaginable British ai...Read the entire review

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McLeod's Daughters - The Complete Seventh Season DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35675 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:34:15 UTC Rent It

Enough! Seriously...it's all just...I mean, who are these people? Where are McLeod's daughters? Koch Vision has released the eight-disc, 32-episode boxed set, McLeod's Daughters - The Complete Seventh Season, and it's just as bad I suspected it would be, after the ominous signs of Season Six put a pall over that go-around. All but one of the original cast members have finally left the series (and even he pulls a runner halfway through this season), leaving the viewer with the strange sensation of seeing relative strangers inheriting the McLeod's Daughters format, running around Drovers, getting into constant emotional, physical and romantic trouble while enacting all-too familiar story set-ups from earlier seasons, and all without the slightest bit of audience identification to anchor the season. My understanding is that Season Eight (which is currently filming and airing i...Read the entire review

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Chris Isaak Christmas DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35612 Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:08:54 UTC Rent It

A Chris Isaak Christmas? What's that, fourteen songs about how Chris got dumped during the holidays? "Mrs. Claus Did a Bad, Bad Thing"?

But I kid Mr. Forever Blue. And I'm not too far off, either, as his concert special "Chris Isaak Christmas" features several carols about loneliness, including that old standby, "Blue Christmas," in which the singer lets loose his inner Heartbreak Hotel.

Really, though, it's a rocking, rollicking hour of musical fun from the unclassifiable singer-songwriter. With his band decked out in tuxedos and himself done up in a series of Elvis-inspired sequin-covered suits, Isaak lends his distinctive swagger to eleven holiday classics and five new songs. The concert was produced in 2004 by PBS for their "Soundstage" series, just in time for that year's release of Isaak's Christmas album. (Fifteen of that album's songs appear here; for those keeping score, t...Read the entire review

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Life with Derek: The Complete First Season DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35559 Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:56:31 UTC Rent It

Review:

A Disney Channel series that ran from 2005-2006 and was produced in Canada, "Life With Derek" most resembles a modern "Brady Bunch", taking the structure of the classic with a modern setting and attitudes - rather than making any sort of attempt to get along, the children constantly bicker with one another and try to set boundaries in a house that seems awfully small.

The series focuses on George (John Ralston) and Nora (Joy Tanner), two adults who get married and bring children to the table: he has Derek; Edwin and Marti, while Nora has two daughters - Casey and Lizzie - who aren't thrilled at the prospects of moving into George's now smaller house. While the children don't always get along, the battle is largely between Derek (Michael Seater) and Casey (Ashley Leggat). While the parents have never been happier, the oldest children who can't go a few minutes without a sq...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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Jewel: The Essential Live Songbook DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35450 Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:38:40 UTC Highly Recommended

Background: Jewel Kilcher (also known as "Jewel") has been a fixture on the singer/song writer circuit for over ten years now, joining the vast community of talented musicians known by the masses for a few hit songs but adored by fans for a far wider body of work. The lovely lady came out of nowhere to top charts with "Who Will Save Your Soul", the music video playing so often on various channels that it made me wonder if she could retire based on royalties for that one alone but her prolific work ethic has provided some other sweet sounding efforts too (another favorite being "You Were Meant For Me" from the same album). My review today is another in the Sound Stage series shot for broadcast on PBS, the long running program perhaps the only reason I donate to the network these days, with a double dose of concerts provided in the form of Jewel: The Essential Live Songbook. ...Read the entire review

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Operation Valkyrie: The Stauffenberg Plot to Kill Hitler DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35295 Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:13:09 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie:
For you Tom Cruise fans who have been frustrated by the repeated delays in the release of his new film Valkyrie, you can get a fascinating sneak-peek of sorts from Operation Valkyrie: The Stauffenberg Plot to Kill Hitler. While most people are probably at least passingly familiar with the July 1944 attempt to assassinate Germany's fuhrer, few probably know the backstory or even how prevalent the desire for a coup d'etat was among the military elite, some of whom (like Stauffenberg) never joined the Nazi party.

Valkyrie was in actuality the code name given to a covert military plan to quell civil unrest should it break out among the indentured masses who had been conscripted into near slavery, shipped to Germany from the occupied territories, and put to work building armaments, among other wartime needs. It was the genius, and also the ultimate failing, of the pla...Read the entire review

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Witness to the Mob DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35151 Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:55:36 UTC Rent It

The Movie:

Produced by Robert DeNiro and originally shown on NBC, Witness To The Mob tells the true story of Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano (played here by Nicholas Turturo), a New York City mobster who started out as a lowly 'soldier' and slowly but surely worked his way up the ladder of the now infamous Gambino crime family. How did Sammy do it? He proved his worth by murdering anybody who his bosses deemed needing it, including but not limited to close friends, a brother-in-law, and eventually his own mob boss, one Paul Castellano (played by Abe Vigoda).

The powers that be in the Gambino crime family took notice of Gravano's skills and determination and he was promoted time and again. Eventually, however, Gravano would notice some unusual behavior within the family system and he would decide to assist the Fed's in their quest to put crime boss John Gotti (Tom Sizemore) behind ...Read the entire review

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Soundstage Presents: Sheryl Crow Live DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34860 Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:25:52 UTC Rent It

The Show:

Sheryl Crow turns out dependable, well-crafted, solidly performed mainstream rock, and the show captured in Soundstage: Sheryl Crow Live is dependable, well-crafted and solidly performed mainstream rock. Like Crow's canon, however, it, well, just isn't especially interesting.

Nevertheless, fans of the singer-songwriter will not be disappointed. This 90-minute show from the PBS concert series includes most of the hit singles Crow has produced since her 1993 debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club. Her live versions of such crowd-pleasers as "If It Makes You Happy," "Everyday Is a Winding Road," "Soak Up the Sun," "Steve McQueen" and "All I Wanna Do" are straightforward and respectable, if not especially sonically adventurous. But there are a few deeper cuts thrown in for good measure, and nifty covers of Cat Stevens' "The First Cut Is the Deepest" and Nick Lowe...Read the entire review

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P.D. James: The Essential Collection DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34750 Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:56:02 UTC Skip It

Koch Vision has re-released its 2005 DVD boxed set, P.D. James - The Essential Collection, upgrading it with the inclusion of two more TV titles - 1991's Devices and Desires and 1995's A Mind to Murder - in the Commander Adam Dalgliesh series (those films include: 1983's Death of an Expert Witness, 1984's Shroud for a Nightingale, 1985's Cover Her Face and The Black Tower, 1988's A Taste for Death, 1993's Unnatural Causes, and 1997's Original Sin). Not having viewed this earlier set, I did a little digging on this previous release, and apparently, all extras (and they're very slight) are included here, with no new ones, outside of the additional films added. So double dipping should be cautioned if the two new titles are available singularly. As for the mysteries themselves...I can't say P.D. James' popular sleuth is my new fa...Read the entire review

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Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre: The Complete Collection DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34700 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:59:52 UTC Recommended

The Series:

In 1980 when Shelley Duvall was on the set of Robert Altman's Popeye she read a book of fairy tales in her spare time. As she was reading, she got the idea in her head that Robin Williams would make a great Frog if someone were to shoot an adaptation of The Tale Of The Frog Prince. She approached Williams about the idea, he suggested she go for it and said that he would take the part, and two years later a small cable network called Showtime would green light a series entitled Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theater. Using her connections in Hollywood, Duvall was able to convince a fantastic array of talent to work on the series both in front of and behind the camera and her intent with the series was to shoot each story as if it were its own movie. The debut episode proved to be quite popular and the series, which would be one of the first television shows...Read the entire review

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P.D. James: Devices and Desires DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34578 Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:44:45 UTC Highly Recommended

1991, Anglia Television/ITV
6 parts, 310 minutes, not rated
Directed by John Davies
Written by Thomas Ellice, based on the novel by P.D. James
Cast: Roy Marsden, Susannah York, Gemma Jones, James Faulkner, Tony Haygarth, Tom Georgeson, Tom Chadbon, Harry Burton, Suzan Crowley, Nicola Cowper, Robert Hines, Helena Michell

The missing piece in the P.D. James DVD puzzle finally falls into place with the arrival of 1991's "Devices and Desires," which aired stateside that year on PBS' "Mystery!" In addition to this stand-alone two-disc set, the mystery tale is also included in Koch Vision's simultaneously released "P.D. James: The Essential Collection." That boxed set includes nine James tales starring Roy Marsden as Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard, but not Marsden's 10th and final (to date), "A Certain Justice," which is available from WGBH Boston. (Two more recent Dalgli...Read the entire review

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Terminal City: The Complete Series DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34569 Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:44:13 UTC Recommended

"What is the relationship between destruction and beauty? To answer that question, you would solve one of the greatest mysteries of humankind." - Mr. Meehan

The Series
When I was 10 years old, my mother passed away after a three-year bout with cancer. It's a memory that sometimes becomes emotionally overwhelming when watching similar stories play out in film and television. When I popped in Terminal City--a 10-epsiode series that initially ran on Canadian television in 2005 before hitting American airwaves on Sundance Channel in 2008--I knew the probability for that reaction was high.

Maria del Mar plays Katie Sampson, married for 18 years to architect husband Ari (Ally McBeal's Gil Bellows). The two have three children: eldest child Sarah (Katie Boland), ...Read the entire review

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Ballet Shoes DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34485 Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:35:34 UTC Recommended

THE FILM

"Ballet Shoes" takes a kindly, impassioned view of the hungry heart, as seen through the eyes of women left to their own devices once abandoned by their loved ones. It's a caloric helping of melodrama, but it's rendered effective by the exceptional performances and observant direction by the vastly talented Sandra Goldbacher.

Brought together by a kindly, adventurous geologist (Richard Griffiths) in the 1920s, three orphans, actress Pauline (Emma Watson, the "Harry Potter" series), tomboy Petrova (Yasmin Paige), and aspiring ballet dancer Posy (Lucy Boynton), have been raised by harried caretaker Sylvia (Emilia Fox, "Cashback"). Struggling to make ends meet, Sylvia unenthusiastically allows the girls to raise their educational standards, sending them to be taught the cruel ways of stage performance. While Pauline finds triumph as an actress, the bills keep mounting, exac...Read the entire review

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Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre: The Complete Collection DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34466 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:44:23 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie:
Looks can be deceiving. Shelley Duvall, who typically plays wide-eyed naïfs or hapless (and helpless) damsels in distress, would not strike the average viewer as a power-playing, deal-making producer type. And yet she ably provided just such a role for the much heralded television series Faerie Tale Theatre, being re-released in a new upgraded version here with all 26 episodes plus some exclusive bonus content. If the individual episodes never quite attain the nutty hilarity of Rocky and Bullwinkle's "Fractured Fairy Tales," and often seem bloated beyond what really should have been a 30 minute running time, they nonetheless offer a truly mind-boggling array of talent putting a post-modernist spin on a lot of hoary sagas that we all grew up with, for better or worse.

Faerie Tale Theatre ran six seasons (though truth be told, some seasons were extremely sh...Read the entire review

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Soundstage Presents: Heart Live DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34431 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:15:30 UTC Recommended

Background: Heart is one of my favorite rock bands and has been since the first time I heard the two Wilson Sisters (Ann and Nancy) on AM radio over 30 years ago. With Ann on vocals and Nancy playing guitar, the pair was never shy about trying new things, their music constantly evolving but remaining true to the roots they held so dear. While going through some lean times here and there, their fans have stuck by them far more loyally than record labels, the duo providing a lot of drama behind the scenes but also considered one of the strongest live acts all these years too. Their ballads, rock pop tunes, and straightforward rock all seem to show the kind of emotion the pair is capable of providing, numerous concert performances shot over the years still unavailable on DVD, a problem partially solved by last year's release of Dreamboat A...Read the entire review

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McLeod's Daughters - The Complete Sixth Season DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34298 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:39:17 UTC Rent It

Okay. Maybe now it's all getting a tad silly. Koch Vision has released the eight-disc, 32-episode boxed set, McLeod's Daughters - The Complete Sixth Season, and I have to say that even though I'm a devoted fan of the show, it's all becoming a bit much at this point. I mean, major characters are leaving the show again, dead people are coming back to life, people are going blind, somebody has ESP, ghosts are walking around Drovers, death threats are coming in from all points, Stevie and Rose go shopping (jesus), picture frames are jumping off walls, Claire may be directing a horse to give Tess a "sign," and people are hooking up and breaking up at a dizzying pace, while the actual ranching at Drovers falls by the wayside. I love long-format serials, but you can see where the series is eventually headed in McLeod's Daughters - The Complete Sixth Season, and it's not pret...Read the entire review

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Wire in the Blood: Prayer of the Bone DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34215 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:49:16 UTC Rent It

The Show:

Every once in a while a TV show feels the need to shake things up, sothey'll often have the cast travel to some exotic locale.  TheBrady Bunch went to Hawaii and the Grand Canyon, Absolutely Fabulousvisited New York City, and even Doctor Who recorded an episode inFrance.  Now it's Tony Hill's time to travel abroad in the Wirein the Blood TV Special Prayer of the Bone.  In this storyDr. Hill finds himself in the wilds of Texas trying to cope with the localswho are quite different from what he's used to.  While it's a goodepisode, as most of the series is, the story is a bit more contrived thanusual which makes for a less satisfying time.
 
Dr. Tony Hill (Robson Green) is a brilliant clinical psychologist specializingin psychopathic criminals.  He...Read the entire review

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