Arabian Nights

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Price: $77.99   

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Robert Townsend 3: Partners in Crime [VHS]

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Price: $49.99   

Product Description

Considered one of the most versatile talents in Hollywood today, Robert Townsend is regarded by many as a renaissance man. He is an actor, director, producer, comedian and writer with a career that spans 15 years. He has acted in films like A Soldier� s Story, directed by Norman Jewison, and The Mighty Quinn with Denzel Washington. He truly broke ground in 1987 when he wrote, directed, produced and starred in the comedy classic Hollywood Shuffle. For the small screen, he created and produced two ground breaking variety shows, the Cable Ace Award Winning Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime for HBO and the Fox Television Variety Show Townsend Television. Originally aired on HBO, Robert Townsend �s Partners In Crime will make its DVD and VHS debut!

Robert Townsend 3: Partners in Crime [VHS] Review

So glad to find this on Amazon! As a teen, my friends and I watched the entire series. We still laugh about it and ocassionally repeat lines from the show. There is a lot of talent packed into this program. Many of his "Partners In Crime" were virtually unheard of when the special aired on HBO back in the 80's. An easy way to own footage of today's top sitcom and movie comedians before they made it big. Check out their style and see what they were like before blowing up. If you're a true fan of comedy, then this dvd is for you. This will no doubt become a classic (it already is in my book).

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The Servant

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Price: $49.97   

The Servant Review

There are no axe murderers lurking in the closet, but Joseph Losey's decadent class-struggle allegory "The Servant" matches Polanski's "Repulsion" as a classic of psychological horror. Dirk Bogarde delivers a note perfect performance as the "manservant" hired by snobby playboy James Fox (in his screen debut) to help him settle into his new upscale London digs. It soon becomes apparent (to the viewer) that this butler has a little more on the agenda than just polishing silverware and dusting the mantle. Actors talk about giving the character "an inner life"-just watch Bogarde's facial expressions and see a craftsman at work! A young (and quite alluring) Sara Miles is memorable as Bogarde's "sister" who is hired as the maid. If you've seen "Wings Of The Dove" or "Days Of Heaven" you will likely figure things out early on, but you'll enjoy the ride all the same. The expressive chiaroscuro cinematography sets an increasingly claustrophobic mood as the story progresses (Watch for the clever use of convex mirrors to "trap" the images of the principal characters). By the way, if you are a fan of 1960's British folk music, you'll want to keep your eyes (and ears) peeled for a rare, unbilled (and all-too-brief) glimpse of legendary (and reclusive) guitarist Davey Graham, playing and singing (live-not dubbed!) in a scene where James Fox walks into a coffeehouse. The DVD is bare-bones, but picture and sound are excellent. A must-see.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Review

Content

Well, it's Season One. Having watched it many times over the years, I can say that certain episodes (Symbiosis, for instance) do not hold one's attention very well. On the other hand, other episodes (Justice, if you can believe it) really benefit from the HD upgrade, making them more appealing as a whole.

If you are somehow a new fan to the series, I still think you should buy this, with the proviso that things get markedly better even with Season Two, and certainly are totally cooking by Season Three. Season One is still a vital piece of TNG, introducing scads of characters and backstories. And there are still some superb episodes to be found (Encounter at Farpoint, Where No One Has Gone Before, Conspiracy, among others), and plenty of average shows, too.

Video

But these reviews aren't for new fans, are they? The question is - is it worth spending $60 or more to buy something you already own? Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Yes!

To start with, overall detail has seen a huge boost, on a comparable or better level with the TOS Blu-Ray set. During facial close-ups, small hairs, pores, beads of sweat, and makeup details are easily visible. Costumes take on a new level of 80s cheesiness, with every crenelation, pleat, sequin, jewel, and bead being crisply defined. Buttons and displays leap off the screen. There is a stable sheen of film grain in most shots, which should make you happy, because it means that we're getting most or all of the detail present on the original negative. Color is another area that is light years ahead of the DVD. The DVD had a mushy, muted color scheme. Here, uniforms are bright, lipstick is ruby red, and spacescapes take on a whole new life.

The two areas of the biggest upgrade are any shots with visual effects in general, and space shots in particular. The way that the show was put together in the 80s, video compositing, led to a huge loss of detail, and the introduction of all sorts of jagged edges and blur. Pieces of 35mm film were essentially run through a VCR and cobbled together at that video resolution (480i). Here, all of the original individual film elements, including live action, visual effects, and model shots, have been rescanned separately and re-composited with modern technology. The result is astounding. Visual effects no longer lead to a degradation of the image. Space shots that were swimming with jagged edges and moire now look as good as current movies and television. The detail on the models is superb - as good as the TOS movies. The happy result is discovering how good many of the effects were, especially on an episode like Farpoint that had the budget to back it up.

Now, some purists will dislike the fact that certain planets have been replaced with CG versions. I think it was a good move, because the planet images in question were really the only "bad" effects on the original, and they would have stuck out like a sore thumb on the Blu-Ray. As with the TOS remastered effects, these planets hew close to the original color schemes and whatever details were in the original. I do wish that the originals were available with an angle switch, but it's really not a huge deal. We're getting the original models and visual effects, just played out over a few new planets here and there. It's not obtrusive and the results always look good.

There are a few episodes (Heart of Glory, Lonely Among Us) that featured many dark scenes, and these don't look great. They still, however, are a big upgrade from the DVD. As a rule, the brighter the episode and the more location shots are featured in it, the more spectacular the show looks. Farpoint and Justice, to my mind, are the real lookers of the set. The average episode presentation is at least as good as any modern HD television show, which is a real treat. And, thank goodness, the episodes are presented in their original 4:3 aspect ratio. Yes, they could have expanded the show out to a 16:9 frame, but the original camera work was composed, framed and matted for 4:3, which means that the extra widescreen space would be filled with lights, boom mics, and hairy union worker @$#-cracks. Do you really want to see those things? Not me.

Audio

Audio is presented in a new 7.1 channel DTS-HD mix. It sounds fine on my 5.1 channel set-up. I am not an audiophile by any means. What I want is an engaging presentation with some low frequency (bass) and surround sounds, but that doesn't drown out the dialogue. This fits the bill as far as I'm concerned. There are some reports of audio sync issues on a few episodes. I didn't notice it myself, but happily, CBS/Paramount is running a free disc replacement program for any users who desire it. Pretty cool if you ask me. Your mileage may vary.

Special Features and Packaging

The "Making Of" and Restoration documentaries would be worth paying ten or fifteen bucks for in a standalone release. That says a lot, I think, about the overall value proposition represented by this set. Both are presented in 1080p widescreen with subtitles. The Making Of doc clocks in at 90 minutes broken into three parts, while the restoration doc runs over twenty minutes on its own. Both are comprehensive and offer looks at things that even the hardest core fans (a class of which I consider myself a member) will not have come across before. The hair and makeup tests were a riot, and I loved seeing some of Andrew Probert's original concept sketches - such as a bi-level bridge with a conference table behind the captain's chair. Also very refreshing is some of the candor present in cast and crew interviews, with many reminiscing not just on the high points, but also the low points of getting Season One off the ground. The restoration doc goes into a very nice level of detail concerning how the original film elements were located and recomposited, what was done to alter certain shots (such as the planets) and why, and it provides copious before and after shots of the two editions.

What really shines through in these special features is the love that the creators and the restoration team had for the material. The whole production just oozes detail-oriented care, and really makes you, the viewer, who has just laid down some serious scratch for the set, feel good about what you've purchased. The icing on the cake is the inclusion of all the original DVD featurettes. So basically, you can sell your old DVDs on Amazon, donate them to an old folks' home, or use them as swank coasters.

The packaging is very similar to the TOS sets. The discs are in a blue plastic case with plastic "pages" holding discs. Irritatingly, the same flaw exists from the TOS sets - the discs do not list episodes on them, and the package insert only lists them on the inside, covered by discs in the case. I flipped mine around so that the episode list shows on the outside.

The package graphics are attractive. Picard, Riker and Data are inset on a Federation logo (no love for the ladies yet, alas), with some red graphics in the background. Presumably, the color scheme will match the DVD progression of colors, which will be nice for those of us who were used to them.

Conclusion

I think this is a must-buy for any fan with an HDTV, personally. The experience is markedly better than DVD, and light years beyond the original airing in the 80s and 90s. It looks better now than it ever has, and it looks comparable to a modern television show. The space shots especially look as good as most big budget movies. When you see the opening title sequence of Farpoint and the first in-episode shot of the Enterprise, you will be sold, I promise you.

The extra features are at a very high level of production and content quality, and lead to what I consider to be a strong value proposition. For the price you're likely to find this at online, you're getting an extremely strong audio-visual experience, with enough new material to really feel like a complete package, even for die-hard fans.

So, and you'll forgive me, if the question is "to buy or not to by," the answer is: make it so!

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Three Smart Girls Grow Up [VHS]

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Three Smart Girls Grow Up [VHS] Review

Three Smart Girls Grow Up is a delighful movie about a young girl playing matchmaker to her two sisters. Deanna Durbin has long been one of my favorites and in this film she proves why. She's a natural actress, her voice is beautiful, and the plot of Three Smart Girls Grow Up though slight takes us back to another time. The clothes in the movie are beautiful (in particular an outfit that Nan Grey, playing Deanna's sister, wears early in the movie) and the sets are excellent as well. I'd love to more of Deanna Durbin's films.

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Scanners

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Price: $46.06   

Scanners Review

Every once in awhile I like to dip my toe into a David Cronenberg film. I have seen quite a few of them at this point, from some of his earliest stuff like "Rabid" to his seminal reworking of "The Fly" starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. One thing you will always get out of a Cronenberg film is a serious look at how technology and human beings interact. Like science fiction author J.G. Ballard, Cronenberg's viewpoint towards a synthesis of man and machine is always exceedingly grim, not to mention gory as all get out. The overarching theme in his cinematic examinations seems to be that humans simply do not know enough about the technology they develop, or if they do, their arrogance in the ultimate abilities of mankind never prevents them from charging into potentially damaging experiments. That we are just not far seeing enough to predict the outcome of using new drugs or messing around with human genetics may be a good message to take from a Cronenberg film. "Scanners" should fall into a "Cronenberg 101" class about these messages. Released in 1981, this film helped bring Cronenberg into the mainstream, as well as spawning a host of cheap sequels and a possible remake due sometime next year. Of course, this movie also provides the rabid horror fan with what is possibly the sickest gore scene in cinematic history."Scanners" tells the story of Cameron Vale, a man who has spent most of his life in a perpetual fog. Roaming through the streets of the city as a homeless person, Vale suffers from a plethora of voices constantly yammering away in his head. He cannot hold a job or have a regular life with this problem, so he copes the best way he can by always staying on the run. During one of his excursions in a shopping mall, Vale overhears two women casting aspersions on his grubby appearance. The comments bother Cameron, who promptly causes one of the women to collapse into convulsions merely by mentally concentrating on her. Two thugs in trench coats lurking nearby notice Vale's little performance and promptly chase him down. When our hero wakes up, he is in the company of one Doctor Paul Ruth, a laconic chap who gives Vale the lowdown on what he is and what he must do. Ruth comes across as distant and slightly sadistic, but Cameron trusts him because the doctor knows how to make the voices in his head stop and is the first person to show a real interest in him. According to Ruth, Cameron is a scanner, a person with the ability to use a congenital form of telekinesis to manipulate other human beings. Ruth shows Vale that an injection of a drug called ephemerol quiets the voices in his head, which are really the voices of people around him that he picks up because he doesn't know how to use his scanning abilities. What Cameron doesn't know is that Ruth works for CONSEC, one of those evil corporations most movies seem to have nowadays, a company developing scanners as a weapon for governments and wealthy individuals. Moreover, Ruth initially fails to tell Vale about the presence of Darryl Revok, a powerful scanner who is building an army of these telekinetics, or how Revok just invaded the CONSEC building and killed six men in an attempt to discover exactly what new tricks the corporation has up its sleeve. Ruth then enlists Cameron to track down Revok and kill him. Along the way, our scanner encounters the beautiful Kim Obrist, uncovers the truth behind ephemerol and how scanners came to exist, and the true identity of Darryl Revok.Stephen Lack, the actor who plays Cameron Vale, carries out his onscreen duties with all the charisma of an ironing board. Some people claim that this is exactly the way a confused homeless man should act when confronted with such an awesome series of events, but I don't buy this argument. Lack gives a whole new meaning to the term "wooden" and the movie suffers because of it. Fortunately, Michael Ironsides as Revok, Jennifer O'Neill as Kim Obrist, and Patrick McGoohan as the strangely aloof Doctor Ruth make up for the lead character's ham handed performance. Of these three actors, Ironsides steals the show as the unbalanced Darryl Revok. Anyone remotely familiar with this actor's work knows he often plays the lead evil guy in dozens of films, and "Scanners" marks one of his best turns as a baddie. Without Ironsides in the cast, this movie would not be nearly half as good as it is.The most memorable elements of "Scanners" are both good and bad. The good is the gore, which tops most horror films on the market. The infamous exploding head scene at the beginning of the movie still makes me cringe. In fact, it ranks as one of those rare scenes in a film that actually get worse the more times you see it. The first time you watch the movie, you have no idea that this scanner's head will burst like a balloon. Subsequent viewings are worse because you know what's coming and the anticipation fills you with dread. The final showdown between Vale and Revok revolts as well. What doesn't work in "Scanners" centers on the sudden ability of Cameron to scan a computer system through a public telephone. I simply didn't buy this suddenly revealed ability, let alone that it would lead to the telephone booth exploding. Unfortunately, another drawback is the lack of substantive extras on the DVD. The picture quality is good, but I would have liked a commentary by Cronenberg to explain the philosophy behind the picture. Still, "Scanners" is a must see for horror and science fiction fans alike. 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Most of the consumer Reviews tell that the "Scanners" are high quality item. You can read each testimony from consumers to find out cons and pros from Scanners ...