DVD, BLU-RAY & MOVIE REVIEWS | DONNE TEMPO

Jacquie Kubin reviews
DVD, BLU-RAY & MOVIE REVIEWS | DONNE TEMPO

Amelia

February/27/10 09:24 PM
Amelia Box
Amelia, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, puts actress Hillary Swank into the role of the aviatrix Amelia Earhart and the Oscar winner ably manages to bring the woman we know through Movietone and press reels to life. Read More...
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Whip It - Be Your Own Hero

January/26/10 06:14 PM
Whip It (Be Your Own Hero)
With Whip It (Be Your Own Hero,) nascent director Drew Barrymore asks the question “What would happen if we followed our passions, instead of our obligations.”
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Touched By An Angel Inspiration Collection

January/26/10 01:02 AM
Touched By An Angel Inspiration Collection
The Touched By An Angel Inspiration Collection by Paramount Home Video; $14.99 each) brings sixteen of the shows episodes on four discs. For nine seasons fans of the drama series Touched by an Angel found messages of faith, love and belief in oneself and those around them. Read More...
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Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

December/03/09 06:15 PM
Night at the Museum Box
For those who have not been able to visit our National Mall and tour the Smithsonian Institute’s museums and galleries, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian provides a gleeful romp through a few of the more popular buildings that are our nation’s “attic.” Read More...
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Fight Club: 10th Anniversary Edition

November/19/09 12:59 AM
Fight Club: 10 Anniversary Edition
Fight Club is like a big building on fire. You don’t want to watch the carnage, but it is oddly serene in its destructive power. Its just one of those movies that lives within you. Read More...
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Up

November/10/09 07:50 PM
dt-up-50-1
With a ten-year-old child in the house, my Disney immersion has been thorough. And predictable. Until Up (Disney Pixar; Blu Ray 4 Disc Combo Pack $19.99). I will admit that I did not expect the beautifully crafted love story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

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Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure

October/27/09 01:31 AM
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
For Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure the feisty fairy first seen in Peter Pan in 1953, has a new look and mission. No longer the silent girl pining for her ‘fella, this Tinker Fairy has come into her own in this learn-your-lesson driven story. Read More...
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The Proposal

October/13/09 12:03 AM
The Proposal
The Proposal is not quite up there with Bo Goldman’s 1992 screenplay based on the novel by Giovanni Arpino, it does show that if we don’t like an unlikeable lead character the movie dies before the popcorn is gone. Read More...
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X-Men Origins: Wolverine

September/24/09 11:45 PM
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a 107 minute romp that is breathtakingly fun. But then I am an X-Men fan. The first X-Men comic I purchased was Number 1, signed by that Marvel of comic creations Stan Lee.
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Disney Nature's Earth

August/31/09 07:38 PM
Disney Nature’s Earth cover
Disney Nature’s Earth is a 90-minute documentary that follows three animal families, along with a variety of finned, furred and featured cousins, as they traverse the varied environments they call home. Read More...
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Adventureland

August/25/09 06:25 PM
Adventureland Blu Ray cover
Adventureland is a writer’s movie. Creator Greg Mottola controls his script as director of this colorful, thoughtfully filmed movie that freshly tackles what can easily slip into the stale genre of the coming of age movie. Showing writer and directorial restraint, Mottola has shaped Adventureland into much more than just an angst-ridden teen movie. Read More...
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How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

August/11/09 10:28 PM
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
A great ensemble cast led by Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey keeps the tempo going and the story just interesting enough in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days .

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Coraline: 2-Disc Collector's Edition

August/09/09 10:44 PM
Coraline Cover
Falling down a modern day rabbit hole, Neil Gaiman’s Coraline takes youthful viewers through a fanciful modern day horror story filled with fantastical creatures. Director Henry Selick uses stop-motion animation to create a startling film filled with incredible textures and terrors. Read More...
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BIG

May/16/09 10:45 PM
Big Blu-ray cover
What child doesn’t wish to be big? To be big enough to ride the twisting roller coasters was my son’s wish. A son who is now, alas, big enough to do just that. Read More...
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

May/10/09 11:46 PM
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Blu-ray
Directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett with Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Julia Ormond, “Benjamin Button,” is a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.
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The Day the Earth Stood Still: 3-Disc Special Edition

May/01/09 07:03 PM
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Director Robert Wise’s The Day The Earth Stood Still remakes a 1951 classic film, and not necessarily for the better. In Wise’s corner however is the fact that the original movie offered a very real portrayal of the era, including the fears of a populace fearful of the red menace of communism. Read More...
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The Wrestler

April/29/09 12:40 AM
The Wrestler Blu-ray
Watching Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” it almost seems as though one is watching a very intimate documentary detailing many of the less then glamorous realities of life on the mat. Read More...
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Bedtime Stories

April/25/09 08:13 PM
Bedtime Stories Blu ray review
Not since the Wedding Singer has there been an Adam Sandler film that I liked. Now that has all changed with Bedtime Stories. This fairytale brings a family closer together as it reunites Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) with his estranged and uptight, single mom, sister, Wendy, a role enhanced by Courtney Cox’s onscreen likability. Read More...
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South Pacific: 50th Anniversary Edition

April/12/09 06:11 PM
South Pacific 50th Anniversary Edition cover
In 1946 the world was a bigger place. The South Pacific was much farther away than it is today. World War II was drawing to a close and the American Seabees were paving the “road” for American troops to invade Tokyo. Read More...
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Quantum of Solace

March/24/09 06:12 PM
Quantum of Solace in Blu-ray
Now in its sixth decade, the James Bond franchise returns with Quantum of Solace. Solace provides the sequel to Casino Royale, a film that left me gasping. Read More...
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Nights in Rodanthe (Blu-ray)

February/06/09 05:33 PM
Nights in Rodanthe (Blu-ray)
Nights in Rodanthe is based on the book by popular romance novelist Nicholas Sparks and it follows a fairly standard boy meets girl, boy and girl heal past emotional issues, boy and girl fall in love, boy leaves girl plot line. Read More...
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The Tudors - The Complete Second Season

January/11/09 04:08 PM
Tudors Second Season set
The Tudors Second Season set continues to peer into the rule of King Henry III – a time of international conflict, political manipulations and the pressure to produce an heir to the throne. Showtime’s telling throws in a healthy dose of sexually charged villainy and fictional license to create an incredibly time worthy show.
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Trust Me

January/04/09 05:15 PM
Trust Me logo
In advertising the goal is the perfect tag line. The hook that virtually sinks into the buyers brain as a constant reminder of their product. Watching TNT’s newest offering, “Trust Me,” all I can say is I am hooked. Read More...
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

December/28/08 03:21 PM
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) said “It takes a long time to be young” a theory beautifully tested in David Fincher’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1921 short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Fitzgerald’s Benjamin Button was born on just any day in 1860, while screenwriter Eric Roth time warps forward to the final day of World War I, a historically auspicious day to be born. Read More...
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Charmed: The Complete Series, Limited Deluxe Edition

November/18/08 09:43 AM
Charmed: The Complete Series
The sisters are charming. At the core of this Aaron Spelling series Charmed is a story about sisters. Sisters who don’t always agree. Sister who do not always like each other very much. But sisters who do find a way together. And that makes for a good storyline. Read More...
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Tinker Bell

October/28/08 11:15 PM
Tinker Bell
Move over mere mortal and mermaid Princesses. This time it's all Tink, as in Ms. Tinker Bell and her fairy friends from Pixie Hollow.  Long before Peter Pan and the Lost Boys there were the fairies of Pixie Hollow. Read More...
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Drillbit Taylor (Unrated Extended Survival Edition)

July/06/08 08:25 PM
Drillbit Taylor (Unrated Extended Survival Edition)
I like Owen Wilson. And wanted to really like Drillbit Taylor. The premise promised 109 minutes, plus bonus features, of diversion wrapped in a cloak of the oh-so-cool Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) helping a trio of nerds, Wade (Nate Hartley), Ryan (Troy Gentile) and Emmit (David Dorfman) traverse the mean highways of high school. Read More...
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Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection

May/12/08 11:02 PM
Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection
This three disc “collector’s edition” brings us little more than the collection released in 2003, actually it brings us less at it does not include the two-hour “making of” documentary the elder release had. What is disappointing is the movies, filmed between 1981 and 1989, are not in high definition. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but possibly not worth spending more money on.
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Iron Man

May/01/08 09:25 PM
Iron Man movie review
Iron Man’s standout screen appearance may very well be the dynamic Stan Lee who dons the role of another great Los Angeles resident for his too brief cameo. But then, without Stan Lee there would be no Iron Man. With the advent of computer graphics, the parade of comic book super heroes began and I admit to enjoying everyone of them. Even Ang Lee’s Hulk (2003). But this film, I did not enjoy. I adored. I loved. I reveled in. Read More...
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Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

April/20/08 08:33 PM
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
There are a few reasons to turn off Walk Hard: The Dew Cox story. The only reason to not turn off Walk Hard The Dewey Cox story is the music. The film, and John C. Riley as Dewey Cox offers some great parodies of folk, rock, psychadelic, hip-hop, pop, disco and punk music bridging the five decades, from the 1950’s through the 1990’s. Read More...
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The Bourne Ultimatum

December/09/07 10:52 PM
The Bourne Ultimatum
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) hurriedly bursts back onto the screen in a quest to recover his stolen memory. Once again, Bourne races around the world in an attempt to uncover his past while leaving a trail of broken, dead and ruined lives behind him. Read More...
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Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

December/07/07 10:49 PM
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix
The boy wizard’s latest chapter is yet another film to take advantage the high definition format. During its 139-minute run, fans are treated to more of the ongoing conflict between Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and Lord Voldemort’s (Ralph Fiennes). In this chapter the man-child battles against the evil one’s continuing quest for power while learning that its good to have friends to rely on.
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition

November/01/07 10:20 PM
Close Encounters
Steven Spielberg's feel good homage to E.T. gets nearly royal treatment in the Blu-ray format as the Academy Award winning effort explores three interconnecting plots of individuals who have made contact with extraterrestrials. Read More...
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