Home Theater News 1/4/2007

DVD Review: Corpse Bride - Blogcritics.org

31 Dec 2006 at 10:36am

DVD Review: Corpse Bride
Blogcritics.org, OH - Dec 31, 2006
Musical numbers blare from the home theater set-up, using every speaker to bombard the viewer with a fantastic audio mix. Separation is composed wonderfully ….

Sony PlayStation 3 - Home Theater Magazine

29 Dec 2006 at 9:30pm

Home Theater Magazine Sony PlayStation 3
Home Theater Magazine - Dec 29, 2006
As it performed the most demanding functions, and during the quietest movie scenes, the PS3 was nearly silent in my home theater .. ….

Hoberman's Top 10 - Village Voice

2 Jan 2007 at 4:00pm

Village Voice Hoberman's Top 10
Village Voice, NY - Jan 2, 2007
A dyspeptic colleague paid me the supreme complement when he attributed Lazarescu's enthusiastic reviews to a general "Hobermanian obsession with anything ….

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DVD Reviews

Get The Latest Movies To Rent From Blockbuster Video Unlimited DVD Rentals delivered to your door first month is only $9.99.
Father Brown: Set 1
3 Jan 2007 at 11:44am
Recommended

Acorn Media’s two-disc set, Father Brown: Set 1, features the 1974 ATV series adaptations of the famous G. K. Chesterton detective, Father Brown. Starring Kenneth More as the taciturn, watchful, crime-solving Catholic priest, Father Brown: Set 1 is a solid offering of British mysteries, as well as an entertaining look back at 1970s British TV.

Chesterton, the early 20th century British poet, biographer, mystery writer, fantasist, literary critic, lecturer (and numerous other labels) has always intrigued me. I would imagine that his Father Brown stories are still widely read, but he had an incredibly prodigious and varied output of literary work. The contemporary of Shaw, Russell, and Wells, Chesterton’s personal beliefs in the spiritual worl…Read the entire review

Iluminados por el Fuego (Spanish Release)
3 Jan 2007 at 6:32am
Highly Recommended

The Film:

The Falkland Islands, 1982…

Argentine soldiers have landed on the islands and are preparing to defend what they consider to be an integral part of their country: the Malvinas. Men are running around, hectic orders are being followed, final preparations are being made.

Off the coast of Argentina Royal Navy ships are carrying British fighter jets that will soon enter the Malvinas air space. Backed by NATO and a neutral US government the British are poised to defend what they consider an invasion of British territory. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her ministers have given green light to the use of military force.

Back on the Malvinas three friends - Vargas (Pablo Ribba), Esteban (Gaston Pauls), and Juan (Cesar Albarracin) - are longing for the days when they made love to their wives. This is not their war! They are scared, cold, and u…Read the entire review

Drive-In Double Feature: Assassination in Rome / Espionage in Tangiers
3 Jan 2007 at 1:50am
Rent It

Dark Sky Films is such a fun label, and their Drive-In Double Feature line does a terrific job capturing the nostalgic flavor of that nearly-kaput form of movie exhibition that their titles in this line are hard to resist. You might, however, want to make an exception in this case. You might say Dark Sky did their job a little too well: drive-ins often played the worst films imaginable and this collection’s woe begotten pair of Euro-thrillers made in Italy makes for one especially dull night at the movies, much like real drive-ins often were. That both transfers are letterboxed but unenhanced doesn’t help.

In the 1960s and ’70s, the Italian film industry cranked out genre films with great abandon. When they stumbled upon an international hit in Hercules (1957), they churned out what seemed like hundreds of similar, usually bland peplum (pepla?), only to shift everything …Read the entire review

The Weeping Meadow
3 Jan 2007 at 1:50am
Rent It

The Film:

There is hardly another director in the annals of Modern Greek cinema as prolific and well-respected as Athens-native Theo Angelopoulos. Considered one of the last true European visionaries alongside Bernardo Bertolucci and Ingmar Bergman this remarkably gifted director is practically unknown in North America. Angelopoulos’ work has been accessible mostly through overused and second-hand VHS relics often either dubbed or severely pan-scanned for the viewing (dis)pleasure of the few brave enough souls willing to seek out his films.

With Trilogia I: To Livadi pou dakryzei a.k.a Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (2004), the first installment of an ambitious trilogy which is meant to cover the history of contemporary Greece, Theo Angelopoulos …Read the entire review

To the Left of the Father
3 Jan 2007 at 1:49am
Highly Recommended

The Film:

Luiz Fernando Carvalho’s Lavoura Arcaica a.k.a To the Left of the Father (2001) retells the tragic story of a Lebanese-Brazilian family where a past incestuous relationship has forced Andre (Selton Mello) to run away from his parents. Determined to have his brother back Pedro (Leonardo Medeiros) embarks on a controversial journey with plenty of unknowns.

Based on the acclaimed book by Raduan Nassar To the Left of the Father is a long and heavy yet visually stunning picture that delves deep into Brazilian culture providing a look at a country with a rich history. Carvalho’s camera compliments Nassar’s story with the necessary emphasis on detail and the dialog hardly interferes with the picture’s desired indolent tempo.

Clocking in at approximately 3 hours however for some To the Left of the Father might prove rat…Read the entire review

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DVD Reviews

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Metallica - The Videos 1989-2004
2 Jan 2007 at 2:15am
Recommended

The Videos

It’s something that’s happened to most of us and it’s never very pleasant. I’m talking about friends growing apart. Sometimes people who were once close simply find themselves seeing each other or communicating less and less until the friendship somehow dissolves. I’ve had similar dissolutions with musical groups such as R.E.M. and U2. There was a time when I would wait with baited breath for their new releases, but as time went on, it got to where I didn’t want to hear from them any longer (the new stuff at least). But, one of the most difficult relationships to break was with Metallica. In the late 80s and early 90s, I was a huge Metallica fan, and couldn’t wait to hear more from this group. However, with the release of “Load”, this devotion ended. Still, as someone who loves music videos, I wasn’t against checking out their compilation, Metallica: The Videos 1989-…Read the entire review

George Reeves Double Feature: Thunder in the Pines / Jungle Goddess
2 Jan 2007 at 2:15am
Recommended

Shrewdly cashing in on renewed interest in the life and death of George Reeves, the tragic actor who played the Man of Steel on Adventures of Superman and the subject of last year’s Hollywoodland, Kit Parker Films and VCI have paired two low-budget features starring Reeves, Thunder in the Pines and Jungle Goddess (both 1948) with a heaping helping of featurettes about the actor. Though there’s a minor issue with the audio on one of the features, both otherwise look terrific and Reeves’ likeable, breezy manner - soon to be carried over into the Superman show - is on display in both films, which are well-paced with running times scarcely more than an hour.

Jungle Goddess is a very routine, cliche-ridden jungle melodrama made palatabl…Read the entire review

Walt Disney Treasures - The Mickey Mouse Club Featuring the Hardy Boys: 1956…
1 Jan 2007 at 6:39pm
Highly Recommended

As part of the latest wave of Disney’s celebrated DVD line, the Walt Disney Treasures, The Hardy Boys The Mickey Mouse Club: 1956 - 1957 showcases the popular mystery serial, The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure from the M. M. Club’s second season, along with a few extras to fill out the backstory on this well-remembered adaptation.

I’m not sure where The Hardy Boys series of books stand with young readers today, but when I was a boy, most everybody I knew had a few on their bedroom bookshelf. They were fairly obligatory Christmas and birthday gifts from parents and grandparents who wanted to pass along their own cherished memories of the stories, and school librarians always prominently featured them along the library book cases as …Read the entire review

Chestnut
1 Jan 2007 at 6:39pm
Rent It

The Movie:

From the producers of “Air Bud” comes this sugary sweet little feature starring Abigail Breslin (”Little Miss Sunshine”) and Makenzie Vega (”Family Man”, “Sin City”) as Ray and Sal, two orphaned sisters who, early in the film, spy a couple of thieves stopped on the side of the road. When the crooks dump a cute little puppy that happened to be in one of the boxes, the girls save it and sneak it back to their little orphanage in the country.

After having to experience watching many of their friends get adopted, Ray and Sal are finally taken in by a kind couple, Laura and Matt Tomley (Christine Tucci and Justin Lewis), who live in a giant apartment in New York City. The only problem is that their new father is allergic to dogs and the building has strict rules against them.

So, it’s no surprise that the girls get into all sorts of hijinks trying to keep their little …Read the entire review

Step Up
1 Jan 2007 at 6:39pm
Skip It

The Movie:

Let me say upfront that I am not the target audience for Step Up. I’m over the age of 16 (by a long shot), I’m male and I don’t think of Save the Last Dance as an art film. That said, however, I’d like to think I can appreciate even a teeny bopper dance flick if it’s done well.

But Step Up isn’t so much done well as well-done, as in overcooked. Its recipe is straightforward enough: Add two parts The Cutting Edge, two parts Dirty Dancing, one part Fame and stir briskly. The result is flavorless gristle. Being that this is the kind of movie where you know within the first 10 minutes every plot point that will follow, any subsequent entertainment value is going to come from appreciating the mechanics of how it’s done. How’s the chemistry of the leads? How’s the danc…Read the entire review

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