DVD Releases January 20 2009

City of Ember

Directed by Gil Kenan
Average customer review:

ight bulbs speckle the sky instead of stars in City of Ember, a fantasy in which a secret city has been built to preserve mankind from worldwide disaster. But over time, the purpose of the city is lost--and the city gradually decays. As power failures threaten to bring on the collapse of everything, young messenger Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan, Atonement) discovers damaged instructions for leaving the city. Her friend, pipeworker Doon Harrow (Harry Treadaway, Brothers of the Head), helps her find the hidden mechanisms that will let everyone escape...but the city's corrupt Mayor (Bill Murray) is more interested in personal gain and tries to stop Lina. City of Ember begins marvelously; the story unfolds smoothly, the production design is rich and engaging, the young leads are charming (Ronan is particularly good), and Murray is as superb as ever. Unfortunately, the movie starts to stumble; some plot turns are baffling (there seems to be some connective tissue left on the cutting room floor) and what should be an action climax flounders with subpar special effects. But even when the movie loses its sure-footedness, there are delightful moments and visual wonders. The strong supporting cast includes Tim Robbins, Mary Kay Place (Sweet Home Alabama), Mackenzie Crook (The Office), Toby Jones (Infamous), and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies). --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Movie OK, book was better
I truly enjoyed the book, but the movie had some things to be desired. The characters were enjoyable, as was the set. There is one huge difference in the movie from the book and that is what ruins the movie. If you are interested in the difference, search for it online, I don't want to give you a spoiler. Even with the issue in the movie, I would love to see a sequel. It seems however that the movie was not as popular as it could have been to warrant a sequel. The book is worth the read and if you enjoy it, I suggest buying the movie.

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The Express
From Universal Studios
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Witness the inspirational true story of a real American hero. Rising from the humblest of beginnings, Ernie Davis (Rob Brown) overcame impossible odds to become the first African-American to win college football’s greatest honor – the Heisman Trophy. Starring Dennis Quaid as the hard-nosed coach that helped drive him to greatness, The Express is a powerful story of triumph on and off the field that will have you cheering again and again!

Customer Reviews

A must for sports fans that love movies
"The Express" is about the life of Ernie Davis, a highly talented football player who followed, literally, in the footsteps of Jim Brown. Ernie, like Jim Brown before him, was recruited to play football at Syracuse University.

This movie follows Earnie's life before, during, and after his time at Syracuse. It chronicles his successes and failures, his personal challenges, and shows how he met those challenges, including racial prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry.

Ernie Davis is played by Rob Brown, an actor recognized for his earlier work in the films "Finding Forrester" and "Coach Carter".

This film is clearly worth a 5-star rating for the sports enthusiast, but it tends to have less appeal for other viewers. The acting is solid, but not outstanding. The music is good, and the storyline is compelling.

My 14 year old football-playing son thinks this film is the greatest!

So, 4 solid stars for a good movie and story that deserves a place along side other memorable sports films such as Miracle (Widescreen Edition)Remember the Titans (Widescreen Edition)Hoosiers and Brian's Song.

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Max Payne
Directed by John Moore
Average customer review:

Max payne (wahlberg) is a maverick cop with little regard for rules and nothing left to lose. Hell-bent on revenge hes determined to track down those responsible for the brutal murder of his family but his obsessive investigation takes him on a nightmarish journey where dark fantasy collides w/stark reality. Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 01/20/2009 Starring: Mark Wahlberg Chris Odonnell Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Pg13

Customer Reviews

Mindless waste
Max Payne is a pain to watch. Other reviewers have noted how shallow
and unimaginative the piece is. How much longer can intelligent viewers
be expected to accept nonstop shoot-fests with little dialog or story to
hold our attention?
Walhberg may have some talent, but he's not able to rescue this senseless
display of blasting and bashing others. My advice is don't bother.

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Repo! The Genetic Opera [Blu-ray]
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
Average customer review:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-01-20
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Customer Reviews

If Paris Hilton is the only reason you're staying away...
Don't let Paris Hilton keep you away from this one... She's got pretty much a grand total of 5 minutes of screen time.. and for someone who hates her, she's found the perfect role.

Everyone should check this movie out, regardless of it being "your cup of tea". Out of the 10 people I've told to rent it, 9 have bought it, and the other wants to wait for a directors cut. FANTASTIC MOVIE.

Gotta say, I'm glad I have a Blu-ray player. The deleted scenes are totally worth it... BUT WE NEED A DIRECTORS CUT!!!

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Magnificent Obsession - Criterion Collection
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Average customer review:

Reckless playboy Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson, in his breakthrough role) crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from the town s only resuscitator at the very moment that beloved local Dr. Phillips has a heart attack and dies waiting for the life-saving device. Thus begins one of Douglas Sirk's most flamboyant master classes in melodrama, a delirious Technicolor mix of the sudsy and the spiritual in which Bob and the doctor s widow, Helen (Jane Wyman), find themselves inextricably linked to one another amid a series of increasingly wild twists, turns, trials, and tribulations. For this release, Criterion also presents John M. Stahl's 1935 film version of the Lloyd C. Douglas novel, starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor.

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Audio commentary featuring film scholar Thomas Doherty
Magnificent Obsession (1935, 102 minutes): a new digital transfer of John M. Stahl s complete earlier version of the film
Douglas Sirk: From UFA to Hollywood (1991): a rare 80-minute documentary by German filmmaker Eckhart Schmidt in which Sirk reflects upon his career
Video interviews with filmmakers Allison Anders and Kathryn Bigelow, paying tribute to Sirk
Theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Geoffrey O Brien

Customer Reviews

WELL DONE CRITERION!
The Sirk movie is great. It was great 45 years ago when it was not something you HAD to admire. It was still great when I caught a 35 mm print five years ago. In the movie theaters it has always been shown in the Academy ratio, as shot. IMDB is a commercial organization and its 1,85 hysteria to accomodate the DVD releases is a disgrace.
THE MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION is well served by ROCK HUDSON who was not taken seriously because he was breathtakingly handsome. Look at JOHN WAYNE in the thirties, he was that handsome too but nobody held it against him. He was not taken seriously because his films were not prestigious.
Everybody was even better in ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS.
The JOHN STAHL version is great. Again the new canon: all melodramas ARE masterpieces, has done him no service. IRENE DUNNE is superb, as usual and ROBERT TAYLOR was a great actor. I mean it.
Could we have 1,33 editions of the movies from the fifties, at least.
All the movie buffs would be willing to pay extra money. I am deprived of the BOETTICHER and DAVES movies and couldn't face watching SUMMER PLACE, a great movie in that hideous 1,85 format. It lies with IMITATION OF LIFE and some others.
The author LLOYD C. DOUGLAS was a queer one, a Lutheran minister. He wrote only eleven novels. The last ones THE ROBE and THE BIG FISHERMAN are straight Christian novels, or Christian romances.
THE MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION is the first one (1922). For me, Douglas was rather some kind of spiritualist than a true orthodox, in spite of
the Christian themes or conversions. I strongly recommend to lovers of American literature GREEN LIGHT, WHITE BANNERS and DISPUTED PASSAGE, they will be rewarded by some bizarre but interesting thinking, not just some
queer praise of medical science. Like the movies, literature must not be
pure pleasure but has to reveal its significant treasures.

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The Powerpuff Girls: The Complete Series - 10th Anniversary Collection
Directed by Craig McCracken, Genndy Tartakovsky, John McIntyre, Lauren Faust, Randy Myers
Average customer review:

In the city of Townsville, the frustrated Professor Utonium is gathering all the ingredients to make a perfect little girl (sugar, spice, and everything nice). But when his lab assistant, a monkey named Jojo, causes the accidental addition of Chemical X to the mix, the Professor ends up with not one but 3 perfect, powerful little girls. It soon becomes obvious that Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup are not normal girls, they have superpowers and have not yet learned to control. The girls are treated like outcasts because they have inadvertently wrecked Townsville in a superpowered game of tag. To win the hearts of the people of Townsville, the girls are tricked into making a deal with Jojo who plans to take over Townsville. As the girls foil this threat and defeat an army of superpowered monkeys, the Powerpuff Girls learn that with great power comes great responsibility. Set includes all 78 episodes plus the holiday special and fans' favorite extras on six discs, plus a custom panoramic poster designed by series creator Craig McCracken.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-01-20
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Box set, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 1745 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Great Box Set With Few To No Problems
Oh wow I loved, loved, loved this show as a kid! And now every single episode is now in one pretty package!
I was ecstatic when I discovered they were releasing the complete series on DVD, And after I keep checking for a season 2 dvd and nothing came up, I feared that I would never see a powerpuff dvd again! Boy was I wrong!
The series set is a great thing for any powerpuff fan as it's loaded with extras Including: The Original short that started it all "The WhoopA** Girls" the 2 original pilots from the "What A Cartoon Show" "Meat Fuzzy Lumkins" & "Crime 101", A load of classic PPG promos, The christmas special "Twas The Fight Before Christmas", a great all new 30+ minute documentary featuring interviews with Craig, Voice Actors, and other people who worked on the show, a never before seen in the states episode "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey", and the all new 10th Anniversary episode (Which was just aired this past monday in the states) "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!"
And much more including commentaries from Mojo Jojo and The Mayor.
My only gripes with it are that the DVD's are double sided (Which is not that big a deal) "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" is not included in the set, and the menus on the DVD are kinda boring and theres a Cartoon Network bug on the menus (Which is also not that big a deal)

But beacuse my gripes are only small little things that don't really effect the DVD I will still give this otherwise fantastic set a 5 out of 5 as this is one of my faviorte shows of all time! "And So Once Again The Day Is Saved Thanks To The Powerpuff Girls!" THE END

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Igor
Directed by Tony Leondis
Average customer review:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #160 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-01-20
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 87 minutes

Customer Reviews

not a bad horror spoof
This one I want to be great, was disappointed in that respect but overall, despite the bad lighting (in a CGI movie to boot) Igor is an original cartoon. Don't expect any textures or curves in this boxy, shiny and stylized account of an Igor who wants to be a scientist. The rabbit and brain sidekicks are the best part of the movie, the big Bride of Frankenstein showgirl I thought to be the drawback, and she was supposed to be the big joke.

Not the worst CGI I ever saw but with the material at hand the possiblities they blew are astounding.

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Spain... On The Road Again
Directed by Charles Pinsky
Average customer review:

Get ready for the road trip of a lifetime

From the seaside cliffs of Mallorca to the bustling tapas bars and majestic museums of Barcelona, this is the ultimate road trip across Spain. Academy Award®-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, celebrity chef Mario Batali, celebrated author Mark Bittman (How to Cook Everything), and Spanish actress Claudia Bassols embark on a ten-week tour of a country at the forefront of the culinary and cultural worlds. Each episode finds the four in a new locale, from learning how Cava is made in Catalunya to meeting the famed pigs of Salamanca, as they steadily reveal the undiscovered delights of a country brimming with gastronomic and aesthetic treasures.

DVD Features: Deleted Scenes; Filmmaker Audio Commentary; Behind the Scenes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #682 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-01-20
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 690 minutes

Customer Reviews

Mouth-Watering and Thoroughly Enjoyable Reality/Travelogue/Food Show.
I hate reality TV, travelogues put me to sleep, and I can only take cooking shows in small doses, but I love "Spain...on the Road Again". In this case, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This is a thirteen-part travelogue/food series that aired on PBS in fall of 2009. Chef and restaurateur Mario Batali, who lived in Spain for several years, provides the sparse narration for a food-oriented road trip through 10 regions of Spain in the company of four famous personalities. Batali is joined by friends Mark Bittman, the New York Times food writer, and Gwyneth Paltrow, the actress. The charming and beautifully-accented Spanish actress Claudia Bassols rounds out the quartet and acts as a translator when the Spanish of the American's isn't up to the task.

Batali has an overbearing personality, but the mixing and (not always) matching of these four people is interesting enough. Often Batali is paired with Paltrow and Bittman with Bassols, but they switch around. Every person is not there for every episode, as Gwyneth Paltrow goes off to be with her family in London or Bittman is off on a book tour. A lot of conversations of dubious significance take place in the Mercedes convertibles that they tool around in, but this gives the audience lots of opportunity to see the countryside. And we do see both rural and urban Spain, touching on every region except the southwestern part of the country. The intrepid travelers take us to where the food is grown, raised, or caught, as well as to the restaurants in which it is served.

We see a lot of the country by car. Though the hosts draw our attention to points of interest, and they get out of the cars and go in some museums, cathedrals, resorts, etc., these are more like teasers than tours of the sights. They offer a lot more detail about the food. We visit expensive trendy restaurants as well as more traditional establishments that look accessible to middle-class budgets. We watch specialty cheesemakers, pastry chefs, and country cooks do their thing. Our hosts make lobster stew with some fishermen on the beach of Menoa. The food really runs the gamut. And it literally made my mouth water every time. Spain offers perhaps the best Mediterranean cuisine at this time, and nothing could be a better advertisement for Spanish tourism.

That's what "Spain...on the Road Again" is. It's an ad for Spain. And apparently for Mercedes, given the number of times we see those cars. It couldn't be more effective or enjoyable. The odd combination of personalities, the lovely scenery, stunning architecture, and food, food, food. Great food, even for a semi-vegetarian like Paltrow. (Like me, she eats seafood but not other meat.) I'd hop on a plane to Spain right now if I could afford to. Some of the dishes could be made at home, some couldn't. Sometimes they are explained, but not in the case of restaurant food. If you've seen Mark Bittman's "The Best Recipes in the World" series, the format of the food segments is similar. It's just thoroughly enjoyable. This is an hour-long show, but I am always surprised that it ends so soon.

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The Notebook (Limited Edition Gift Set) [Blu-ray]
Directed by Nick Cassavetes
Average customer review:

When you consider that old-fashioned tearjerkers are an endangered species in Hollywood, a movie like The Notebook can be embraced without apology. Yes, it's syrupy sweet and clogged with clichés, and one can only marvel at the irony of Nick Cassavetes directing a weeper that his late father John--whose own films were devoid of saccharine sentiment--would have sneered at. Still, this touchingly impassioned and great-looking adaptation of the popular Nicholas Sparks novel has much to recommend, including appealing young costars (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) and appealing old costars (James Garner and Gena Rowlands, the director's mother) playing the same loving couple in (respectively) early 1940s and present-day North Carolina. He was poor, she was rich, and you can guess the rest; decades later, he's unabashedly devoted, and she's drifting into the memory-loss of senile dementia. How their love endured is the story preserved in the titular notebook that he reads to her in their twilight years. The movie's open to ridicule, but as a delicate tearjerker it works just fine. Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember were also based on Sparks novels, suggesting a triple-feature that hopeless romantics will cherish. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
Another story from the sap-filled pen of Nicholas Sparks ("Message in a Bottle," "A Walk to Remember") is given the familiar golden-hued treatment by the director Nick Cassavetes and the screenwriter Jeremy Leven. This love story, told through flashbacks to the nineteen-forties, concerns a woman (Gena Rowlands) who is suffering from Alzheimer's and the attempt by her old flame (James Garner) to rekindle a memory of their romantic past. Their younger selves are played by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, and their idealized love story is filled with clichés. Cassavetes unapologetically lifts romantic set pieces from earlier films like "On Golden Pond" and "East of Eden" in an attempt to rustle up some first-love tension, but the film is as bland and sentimental as a greeting card. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Movie, Beautiful Gift Set
I have owned this movie on DVD since it's original release and have watched it many times. It is based on my favorite book (of the same name) and is an excellent adaptation! When I first heard it was being released on Blu-Ray I was absolutely ecstatic! I was so excited to see all the beautiful scenery in hi-def and I was NOT disappointed! It was like watching it for the first time!

The gift set aspect of this makes it even more of a treasure! It comes in a box reminiscent if a cigar box. When opening it the first thing you see is the photo book. It is hard cover and spiral bound. It has pics from the movie, character descriptions and a breif retelling of the events in the movie. That is the first half of the book. The second half is blank pages for you to fill in with your own pictures and memories from your personal love story.

The Blu-Ray disc is on the last page of the book. I'm always worried about getting movies where the disc is in a special case because these alway break on me and then I have no way of replacing them so my discs always get scratched. But this seems very sturdy so I doubt I'll have any problems with it.

Behind the book is an envelope that contains the adhesive corners to attach your photos, two sheets of stickers and two beautiful (but very small) laminated bookmarks.

Behind the envelope you will find a set of 16 notecards and envelopes. These, too, are beautiful but all 16 cards are of the same design. I was hoping they would have diferent pictures on them and that they would be folded cards. They all have the same picture (featuring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gossling's back. The scene where they are in the row boat)and are more like postcards than notecards. This is my only complaint with the gift set. And as you can see by my rating, it is a VERY minor complaint.

I was able to get this at a local video store who must have accidentally put it out a day early. I am absolutely pleased with this purchase and would recomment it to anyone who loves love stories! Get it, you won't be disappointed!

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