Family Plot [Blu-ray]

A fun finale
This was Alfred Hitchcock's final film, and he was already in his late seventies when he made it. I think that at this point in his career, after fifty years of movie-making, he KNEW he no longer had to prove himself; his place was already set in history. Therefore, instead of making a film along the lines of Psycho, Vertigo, or Rear Window, he made a fun, lighter film along the lines of To Catch A Theif or The Lady Vanishes. The script of Family Plot was written by the same guy who wrote North By Northwest, which means there is a lot of clever, witty dialogue. The California locations are also a typical Hitchcock touch, and the fun car chase scene in the California hills is a classic. People expecting a SUSPENSE film will be disappointed, but I always felt that the "Master of Suspense" was a misleading title for Hitchcock, because his films are about much more than just suspense. Even so, Family Plot is not a masterpiece, but a treat for Hitchcock buffs. Hitchcock didn't go...
A Small but Exquisite Gem
FAMILY PLOT has earned a place in cinematic history simply because it turned out to be Alfred Hitchcock's last production. While the film was a financial success, like most Hitchcock pictures, it got mixed reviews because many found it too comic in tone and not "suspenseful" enough to have been directed by the Master. It is true that FAMILY PLOT is far from being one of Hitchcock's best films, and it is not the "great" movie one might have expected from this director after the spine-chilling and sordid FRENZY, FAMILY PLOT's immediate predecessor - it is not an ambitious production. However, although the tone of the film is the lightest and funniest of any Hitchcock movie since THE LADY VANISHES in 1939, this does not mean that FAMILY PLOT is free of some disturbing undercurrents which linger in the mind and demand repeated viewings. Like all the characters in the movie, FAMILY PLOT is not what it seems to be. On the surface, we have a light, comic thriller...
Highly Underrated, Classic Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchock's Family Plot is not only his last movie, but highly enjoyable and the final chapter to a career full of brilliant filmmaking.

Barbara Harris shines as Blanche Tyler, a phony psychic who hits it big when one of her wealthy clients offers her $10,000 to track down her dead sister's adopted child who is the last remaining heir to the millions she will pass along. With the help of her boyfriend George (Bruce Dern), the two set out to find the nephew, going by the name Arthur Adamson (played brilliantly by William Devane), who has blossomed into a prominant jeweler, diamond thief, and murderer. Eventually Blanche and George track down Arthur and his girlfriend Fran (Karen Black), but with a chilling conclusion that is pure Hitchcock magic.

The film delights with its strong lead performances and witty dialogue. Although obviously not Hitchcock's best work, the film is solid, and keeps the viewer enthralled throughout.

The DVD contains a...
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AQUARIUM 4K - The Tropical Reef Experience (Limited Edition - Filmed in 4K ULTRA HD) [Blu-ray]

Warning 1080P only
This video only outputs 1080P HD footage only via HDMI, its a bit misleading that it shows as 4k. 4k is not supported by Bluray yet.
Terrific picture quality!!!!
I bought myself a SONY 4K XBR-65X900A and, as I had hesitated so much because of the price, I was also given this Blue Ray as well. Actually it was just a sample disc, but when I saw it in the shop I wanted to get it whatever happened. The image was super sharp, and the image size makes you practically feel as if you are sitting in the aquarium. The disc is impressive on all fronts, both in 2D and 3D offering not only super sharp images but also excellent colours. Although this disc is only 2D my TV converts it outstandingly well.

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Pitbulls In A Skirt-THE MOVIE

SMH
This movie has been in production since 2010. How many times are you going to push the release date back??? Do you need me to edit it? Do you need help with distribution? PLEASE do better!
Waiting :)
I LOVED THE BOOKS LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOVIE ALREADY PRE-ORDERED PATIENTLY WAITING NOW FOR MY MOVIE TO COME AND TO HEAR WHEN PART 5 Is COMING OUT !!!
what I think
It would be nice when this movie finally comes out every time I check on it The dates push back and just noticed The 4th books out off to read that
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Terms of Endearment [Blu-ray]

Terms of Estrangement
Reviewer "Adam Bomb" got tagged with a lot of "no" votes when he plainly wrote why he disliked this waste-of-time movie. I also saw it in a theater and came away the an identical feeling.
Is it unfair or unreasonable to hope that a movie will have some redeeming value for anyone who spends an evening's time and money to see it? What this movie has to offer is a viewing of people at their worst. Pathetic behavior in a movie is pointless if it has no point. This movie had no point, and that's the problem. It was just people manufacturing their own misery. So what? Poignant acting from star-power actors can carry a film so far, and then we look for value in human experience; this film offers only a black emotional void. See it if you enjoy only gloom and sadness.
One of my favorite 80's movies...
Fantastic characters, dialog, performances, story - extremely funny and moving. Nicholson, Daniels, Lithgow, MacLaine and Winger are all on top of their game, and even smaller roles like the kids and DeVito's are memorable. And this team?!: Director: James L. Brooks, Writers: Larry McMurtry (based on the novel by), James L. Brooks (screenplay)... Wow! A classic.
One Of The Greatest Films Ever
The title of this review says it all. Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson...the entire cast was spot-on. This is a superbly-written script with outstanding acting from everyone involved. The movie deserved to win Best Picture, and will remain one of my all-time favorites.
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The Great Muppet Caper And Muppet Treasure Island: Of Pirates & Pigs 2-Movie Collection [Blu-ray]

Great purchase
I purchased this set because I remembered Muppet Caper as a child and really wanted to get my hands on my long time favourite movie. It was just as i remembered and what made it even better I had Treasure Island to see for the first time. It comes with 2 tins filled with muppet stickers, note pad, pencils and sharpener (i gave these to my 2 kids...they love it.) Great purchase!!
The Great Muppet Caper / Muppet Treasure Island
I'm excited to finally own all the theatrical Muppet films on Blu-Ray.
I personally believe that 'The Great Muppet Caper' should be featured on the left side, and the Muppet Treasure should be on the right, so they go in order by release. Nonetheless, I'm not bothered it is a double feature because I can get both films for the price of one, which is actually very low considering the Muppet Movie is the same price and that's only for one film.
The disc (assuming it's a single disc, this is Disney) will include the following special features:
- The Tale of the Story Beyond the Tail, a making-of look at Muppet Treasure Island
- Muppet Treasure Island Audio Commentary
- "Frog-E-Oke" sing-along
- "Let the Good Shine Out"
- A preview of Muppets Most Wanted
and if Disney re-uses the 2005 DVD releases in this set, then
Muppet Trasure Island DVD should feature Widescreen + Fullscreen prestentaion and Pepe Profiles: Fozzy Bear; and the Great Muppet...
My Dream 2-Movie Team
Aside from 'Disney's The Muppets' released in 2011, 'Muppet Treasure Island' and 'The Great Muppet Caper' are two of my favorite Muppet movies. I also liked 'The Muppets' Christmas Carol' and 'The Muppet Movie'...'Muppets From Space' is so-so, but for some reason I couldn't seem to get into 'The Muppets Take Manhattan' (I never even seen the full movie).
The way I see it, this combo pack was released so they could have all the prior theatrical Muppet movies on Blu-ray format, before 'Disney's The Muppets Most Wanted' is released in 2014. For me personally, this double feature is a 'dream team' since I loved both movies and the price is 'affordable' for my budget...I just might have to consider the Blu-ray versions of the other four Muppet film I don't have on Blu-ray, since I have 'Disney's The Muppets' on Blu-ray combo pack and all the other Muppet films on DVD. For some reason, if I like something I tend to (as I call it) 'Upgrade' if I can to the next home media format they...
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Crawlspace [Blu-ray]

slick, OTT low-budget horror
In every review I've seen of this movie (yes, all TWO of them), it's been compared to "Peeping Tom," which I haven't seen, so I'll be at a slight disadvantage while I review "Crawlspace." The plot has Klaus Kinski (the German actor you might remember from the 1979 remake of "Nosferatu")--looking like Beethoven playing Dracula--as a creepy landlord who only rents apartments out to beautiful women...then systematically kills them. It turns out his father was a Nazi scientist who experimented on Jews during World War II, and the genes begin to show after a pretty college student (Talia Balsam, daughter of Martin?) shows up at the complex.

"Crawlspace" is actually quite impressive given its low budget. Kinski--who obviously did this movie for the paycheck--is the central driving force, as his murdering, makeup-smearing, goose-stepping Nazi keeps things intensely interesting. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is dense and undefined, and serve...
crawlspace has a creepy premise, but unfortunately lacks in the execution...
Klaus Kinski (1926-91) plays a demented landlord with perverted intentions in Crawlspace (1986), a creepy suspense thriller with ample potential that unfortunately, isn't quite fully realized. While not quite delivering in the scares and gore department, Kinski's performance makes for what is still an entertaining watch.

While working in a hospital in Argentina, physician Karl Gunther (Kinski) had many patients that mysteriously died. Evil runs in the family, as Gunther's father was executed as a war criminal, for his role in the torture of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. Now the landlord of an apartment building in America, the demented Gunther keeps a woman prisoner in the attic, and also spies on his female tenants, by crawling through the ventilation ducts, and peeping into their rooms through the air register grill.

After Gunther eliminates a tenant who wanders where she should not have, college student Lori Bancroft (Talia Balsam) becomes the...
Awesome film, chairs will have new meaning for you ...
The other reviews have given away enough of this film.

Just watch it. Kinski has a malevolence that few can match, and he delivers in spades.

When he is finally noticed, the method he uses to despatch an investigator will likely make you check chairs forever after.

It's grotesque, escapist horror delivered by a skilled performer, and an absolutely brilliant villain of the screen.
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Frenzy [Blu-ray]

Droll and dark Hitchcock suspense film
Frenzy was a homecoming of sorts as it was Hitch's first film shot in the UK since he left during the 40's. I would disagree with those who claim that Frenzy can't stand with Hitch's best work; Hitch's droll and dark sense of humor change what could have been a run of the mill thriller into a minor masterpiece. The best bits in Frenzy are every bit as startling and powerful as those in Rear Window, Vertigo and North by Northwest. Although his wife Alma's heart attack couldn't have informed the pre-production stages of the script and film, it certainly had an impact on the atomsphere captured in the film. There is an underlying darkness here only hinted at before (most explicitly in The Birds, Vertigo and Marnie).

The performances are uniformly excellent. The fact that Hitch chose stage actors and lesser known British film actors for this film gives it a bit more grit and reality than his earlier films. Anthony Schaffer's script plays with the routine cliches of suspense films. A...
The Master's Last Psychological Thriller
For the first time in twenty-plus years, Alfred Hitchcock returned to his native England to make what turned out to be his final psychological thriller FRENZY. Despite a series of only modestly successful films since his 1963 triumph with THE BIRDS, Hitchcock had not lost his touch when he was handed Anthony Shaffer's fine screenplay (based on the Arthur LaBern book "Goodbye Picadilly, Farewell Leicester Square"). And although his approach to sex and violence is more explicit here (thanks to the ease in censorship restrictions that happened only a few years before), Hitchcock still delivers a film quite typical of his work--suspenseful, chilling, and often quite funny in a blackly humorous way.

The film revolves around a series of grisly strangulations of women occurring around London that have the police totally baffled. The killer's choice is a necktie, which pretty much leaves the door wide-open, since almost every man there wears a necktie. We are then introduced to Richard...
Not the Hitchcock of old...but brilliant nonetheless
Hitchcock's second last film is a tightly-written, well-acted suspense thriller featuring a luckless and underachieving hero being framed for murder, a cunning and psychotic villain whose murderous itinerary is detailed, a gritty and realistic directorial style from Hitch, a story set in a working-class milieu that is far apart from the glamorous and exotic settings of his earlier films, and one horrific murder scene in which the depiction of brutality and evil reached a new height for the director. This film is quite a world apart from the elegant, smooth, urbane suspense pictures he made in the 40s and 50s. But with the increasingly jaded audiences in the 70s, the change was probably inevitable. Still, Hitchcock's craftsmanship made FRENZY as exciting and memorable as his more traditional thrillers.

This DVD from MGM/UA presents the film in a new, widescreen video transfer and a Dolby Digital monophonic sound track. The picture looks a bit dark for my liking; unfortunately...
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Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Not a Review, a Plea
This has always been a lifelong favorite of mine. The cast includes a sinister Boris Karloff. But, did you know that Boris Karloff played not only a sinister doctor, but also was made up by Jack Pierce as the Frankenstein Monster! That footage of Karloff as the Monster, was actually filmed yet removed prior to release! The scene took place in an office setting with the Monster trying to operate a typewriter. This film fan's dream, is to see this Technicolor footage placed in the supplementary section of the DVD release,at the very least. Hopefully the powers that control the wonderful films of Sam Goldwyn, will give us all that cinematic gift.
Danny Kaye at his best!
Possibly the best film that showcases Danny Kaye's many talents, but would love to see a blu ray release for it instead.

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Shameless: The Complete Third Season

Great Show! It gets better every year!
Shameless is a must see show, and it gets better each season. The whole cast delivers great performances each week. William H Macy is the perfect fit for the role of Frank Gallagher, and he is always hilarious. The rest of the cast great too: Emmy Rossum, Jeremy Allen White, Steve Howey, Joan Cusack...If you do not watch this show, you are missing out on one of the best current television shows.

Also, why doesn't this show get more award recognition? Shameless is just as good as any show on TV. It would just be nice to see them get some recognition for their excellent work.

Can't wait for Season 4, January 2014!
Television's most underrated series
The last fifteen years or so have been referred to by many as the golden age of television, and I can't help but agree - what was once a (mostly) simplistic, juvenile medium has finally grown up and has given us some great stuff to chew on. The Wire, Breaking Bad, Deadwood, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and a handful of others have captured me the same way that great film or literature does - if not more so. I, like many others, become attached to these characters in a way that only long-form narratives can provide.

As someone who constantly reads about, writes about and discusses these types of series on the internet, Shameless wasn't even on my radar. No one ever brings it up in "greatest series" discussions and the critical reception, while mostly positive, isn't exactly overwhelming. I had seen the pilot episode around the time it premiered and wasn't impressed (and *still* not impressed with it, to be honest), so I avoided the show for years despite my girlfriend's...
One of the best shows on tv
Honestly season 3 just may be my favorite season of Shameless so far! If you loved the first 2 seasons then you'll definitly love this one, and this is definitly a must buy when it gets released. I'm not gonna put any spoilers in my review, but Shameless continues to be a brilliantly written show and Shameless season 3 has plenty of drama, laughs, and top notch storylines. The acting from the whole cast is outstanding. There's not a bad actor in the bunch. You know how great William H Macy and Emmy Rossum are. It doesn't even need to be said at this point, but there are 2 other standouts this season imo. Jeremy Allen White as Lip and Noel Fisher as Mickey Milkovich. Noel Fisher finally becomes a regular this season and I couldn't be more happy. He completely transformers into Mickey Milkovich, and even if his content up to this point is less than most of the others he steals every scene he's in. For example, during the season finale he gets maybe 2 minutes of screentime overall, but...
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Mary Poppins: 50th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy)

Now available in a 2-disc DVD edition!
Mary Poppins may be =the= stand-out live-action movie that Disney has ever produced. Or will ever produce.

All the songs are very memorable. Who out there does not find themselves humming or even singing along with the likes of "Chim-Chim-Cheree" or "Spoonful of Sugar"?

Julie Andrews will always be remembered for her role as Mary Poppins, and Dick Van Dyke absolutely shines as Bert the Chimney Sweep. Van Dyke also plays the senior officer of the bank - and has his very best scene where he realizes that the punchline - "A wooden leg named Smith" - is funny. Andrews won an Academy Award for Mary Poppins, and the movie also won Best Visual Effects, and Best Music Score, as well as Best Song ("Chim Chim Cher-ee").

The scene where "I love to laugh" is particularly poignant. Ed Wynn died not long after the release of Mary Poppins, and shows some of his best comedy style in this scene. Very laughable.

The story is top-notch and has a wonderful...
Disney's Live Masterpiece Shines More Brightly than Ever!
"Mary Poppins" is one of that select group of films that can truly be called 'Classic', a project conceived in love and filled with so much child-like wonder that it will never grow old or 'out-of-date'. Certainly the crowning achievement of Walt Disney's remarkable career, the "Mary Poppins" 40th Anniversary Special Edition is simply magnificent!

Based on P.L. Travers' tales of a magical nanny who arrives to bring families closer, the rights to the stories had been pursued by Disney since 1938, but Travers had seen what studios had done to other authors' works, and withheld her approval unless she could maintain some creative control. Years of negotiations only whetted Disney's desire to make a definitive, truly 'special' film, and by 1960, despite the box office failure of another fantasy-themed 'pet' project, "Darby O'Gill and the Little People", he was more confident than ever in the story's potential, bringing together a remarkable array of talent, including...
Great for 1st Time Buyers; extras emphasize Broadway Musical
Is there really much new to say about this classic Disney film that helped launch the movie career of Julie Andrews? Probably not, but for the handful of people who haven't seen this film, this DVD is a must-buy. Strangely enough, Disney is not releasing a Blu-ray version just yet, so this edition will have to tide over video buffs until that occurs. The 1964 classic is based on the books of P. L. Travers, with a few Disney liberties thrown in. Travers' nanny, Mary Poppins, is somewhat more harsh and unpleasant in the books than in the film version. However, it is obvious that she is hiding a heart of gold inside and that she truly does love the children she takes care. Two of the children did not make the transition from the book, but they are definitely not missed. Julie Andrews is able to bring out the many facets of Mary Poppins without compromising the character, and of course her voice is legendary. The Sherman Brothers whipped up some of their most memorable tunes including...
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