The Movies:

Victor Borge was a unique talent, a genuinely gifted Danish pianist and maestro who became a sensation in the United States in the mid-1950s, thanks to his clever and classy one-man show, "Comedy In Music" (pick up the CD recording of that show if you can track it down; the humor is absolutely timeless). Borge spent the next three-plus decades doing TV specials and touring, right up until his death (at age 91) in 2000.

In his later years, specials of his performances (both new and old) became quite popular on public television, and six of those specials are collected in the Victor Borge: Classic Collection set. It is billed as the "100th Anniversary Edition," marking the upcoming centennial of Borge's birth.

Let's be plain here: there are a great many laughs in this set. Its problem is that there are almost as many redundancies. These six specials are culle...Read the entire review

The Movie:
There's an incredibly lovely, if vastly underappreciated, Christmas carol by the remarkable composer Alfred Burt entitled, "Some Children See Him," which documents how kids from different countries and backgrounds imagine Jesus differently (I highly recommend all of Burt's unusual work, and suggest interested readers do some research on him--his annual "carol" Christmas cards are the stuff of songwriting legend). That same basic idea permeates both documentaries contained in Jesus and Mary in Art, a visually opulent and historically fascinating trip through various artists' imaginations as they sought to portray historical figures about whom very little was known, at least physically.

This new boxed set includes both the Emmy-winning "The Face: Jesus in Art" and "Picturing Mary." Both of these are cut from the same cloth, with much the same visual technique used through...Read the entire review

Bellevue Entertainment/Questar's Blu-ray disc of Scenic National Parks Grand Canyon is actually two shows in one: Grand Canyon, a 49-minute show produced by the Travel Channel in 2006, and National Parks of the Southwest, part of the same series with the same technical specs. Both are excellent. They accomplish several things at once: If you're thinking about vacationing there, it's a very handy guide full of great ideas of things to do and places to stay. As a travelogue, the disc is a great way to visit and experience the majesty of the American Southwest vicariously. Finally, the program is a good overall introduction to the Grand Canyon from a historical and geological perspective, entertaining and informative, something the whole family can enjoy while the kids (and adults) learn a thing or two.

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