MOVIES | DVD REVIEWS | BLU-RAY | IN THEATERS | DONNE TEMPO
Rewine finds Donne at the Movies as she reviews DVD and Blu-ray releases while adding a culinary twist.
The staff also contributes with shorter reviews of other DVDs and Blu-rays as well as current theatrical releases.
Lite
Bytes: Shorter reviews of DVDs, Blu-rays and
current theatrical releases.
The latest movie and television reviews includes The Mel Brooks Collection, Fight Club: 10th Anniversary Edition, Up, Monsters, Inc., Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, The Proposal, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Disney Nature’s Earth, Adventureland, This is Spinal Tap, Coraline: 2-Disc Collector's Edition and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days .(by staff) |
Last
Minute Blu-ray and DVD Movie Gifts for
Her
For a romantic evening choose a great movie such as the recently released My Fair Lady; Start a holiday tradition with the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street; Share a love of great comedy films with the Blu-ray Mel Brook Collection and revisit Christmas at Hogwarts in the new Blu-ray releases of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Ultimate Edition and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Ultimate Edition.(by Jacquie Kubin) |
X-Men
Trilogy (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment,
$79.98 for Blu-ray)
When X-Men the movie came out in 2000, it set my standard for the 21st century comic book films. And while I adore Spider-Man, his tale of personal discovery in no way compares to director Bryan Singer’s film of interpersonal strife, racial intolerance and bigotry due to fear.(by Jacquie Kubin and Cornelius Crimple) |
Slumdog
Millionaire (Twentieth Century Fox Home
Entertainment. $25.99 for
Blu-ray)
Surprisingly few have seen Slumdog Millionaire despite its incredible library of awards, including eight Academy Award Oscars. Their reason “Isn’t it a really sad story about India’s slums and the poor children that live there? It sounds like a downer.” Well yes, but really no. A film as brilliantly shot as Slumdog Millionaire has numerous incredible highlights on the Blu-Ray disk, including the brisk Digital Copy aspects. (by Jacquie Kubin) |
Hancock (Sony
Pictures Home Entertainment. $25.99 for
Blu-ray)
Sarcastic and in need of a bath, clean clothes, and, I would bet a toothbrush, John Hancock (Will Smith) is definitely the anti-hero. The Blu-Ray includes both a theatrical and unrated versions of the film, BD Live, and a bonus digital copy of the film that can be downloaded to the Sony PSP, Playstation 3 or your PC/Notebook. (by Jacquie Kubin) |
The
Godfather: The Coppola Restoration Giftset
(Paramount Home Entertainment- $69.99 to
$62.99 for DVD, $124.99 to $61.95 for
Blu-ray)
A movie fan from an early age, I have seen some great films. But it was The Godfather (1972) that had me totally head over heals in love with the art of moviemaking. The Godfather blends many stories into one multi-layered epic. Family responsibility, love, betrayal, a father’s legacy, the need for respect the thirst for more power, more money, more, well, just more. (by Jacquie Kubin) |
National
Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (Walt Disney
Studios Home Entertainment, $23.95 to $34.99
for Blu-ray)
The whole idea that the Presidents of the United States (not the band, the elected guys) have, since George Washington, been keeping a book of Presidential secrets is so intriguing. I have to admit I like the idea. I also have to admit that I am waiting for the next great Nicolas Cage movie. (by Jacquie Kubin) |
An
Affair to Remember – 50th Anniversary
Collection (20th Century Fox Home
Entertainment, $19.98 for DVD)
This 1957 film, directed by Leo McCarey has long been considered one of the cinema’s most romantic films. It tells not just the love story between Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant) and Terry McCay (Deborah Kerr) it asks the question “Do you have what it takes to follow your heart?”(by Jacquie Kubin) |
The
Jane Austen Book Club (Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment, $26.95 to $38.95 for
Blu-ray)
The Jane Austen Book Club is a beautiful movie – not unlike the perfect English rose that blooms to reveal its core. In the movie, the rose blooms to reveals the lives and loves of five woman and one man set against the words of Jane Austen’s six novels -- Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey.(by Jacquie Kubin) |
El
Cid – Limited Collector’s Edition (The Miriam
Collection: The Weinstein Company and Genius
Products - $39.92 for DVD)
Released in 1961, El Cid is one of the few films that can actually live up to the description “grand-scale, sweeping historical epic.” A highly romanticized film, El Cid plays with history as it chronicles the 11th Century adventures of the heroic Castillian knight and nobleman, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (Charlton Heston). (by Jacquie Kubin) |
The Namesake,
(Fox Home Entertainment, $27.99 for
DVD)
Directed by Mira Nair and based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, Namesake is a vibrant, tactile record of Ashoke Ganguli (Irrfan Khan) and his life journey from India to America and back again. Ashoke’s journey provides the overt story line, but the texture of the film is the struggle of the entire Ganguli family.(by Jacquie Kubin) |
30
Rock: Season One (Universal Studios Home
Entertainment, $49.98 for DVD)
30 Rock [sic] is told through the comedic voice of Tina Fey (Liz Lemon) and features Alec Baldwin (Jack Donaghy) as a top network executive and Tracy Morgan (Tracy Jordan) as the unpredictable star of Lemon's hit variety show, "TGS with Tracy Jordan." (by Jacquie Kubin) |