From Amazon.com
The 1960 remake of Cimarron manages a slight improvement on the worst Best Picture (1931) in Academy Award history. Not that Edna Ferber’s novel of pioneer Oklahoma was ever a movie natural. There’s a plethora of themes–several species of prejudice, capitalism vs. charity, sons unhappily following in fathers’ footsteps, and the irreconcilable tensions between a stability-craving wife and her footloose hero-husband–but the action is front-loaded and the husband (Glenn Ford) is offscreen for years at a time. Anthony Mann gets solo directorial credit, yet the movie seems more typical of his replacement, Charles Walters, a maker of pastel musicals. Most of the large cast comes and goes without establishing identities…
Cimarron
Posted by admin on September 7th, 2010 -->
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Tags: Cadfael: 3pc Box: Series 2 – V
Posted by admin on September 7th, 2010 -->
From Amazon.com
Never tell Brother Cadfael, the medieval mystery-solving monk, your theory of how a crime “must” have been committed. “We must always be wary of ‘must,’” he states. “Nothing is certain.” And so attest these three divine mysteries based on the books by Ellis Peters and originally broadcast in the U.S. on the PBS series Mystery! Each feature-length episode in this boxed set is self-contained but plays against the backdrop of England’s civil war between forces loyal to King Stephen and those to Empress Maud. Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius, Gladiator) stars as Cadfael, who at one point is aptly described as “an odd kind of monk.” The former “soldier, sailor, sinner, and Crusader” has his faith tested by crimes of r…
Star Trek Next Gen. #023:Symbi
Posted by admin on September 7th, 2010 -->
From Amazon.com
The Prime Directive is put to the test in this interplanetary examination of the war on drugs. While studying an irregular star, the Enterprise answers a distress signal from a ship that is being pulled into a planet’s gravity. When contacted, the captain of the ship comes across as fatalistic and possibly drunk. When told to put his crew in the transporter, he ships over his cargo instead, forcing the Enterprise to scramble to try and save the crew. The cargo is Felicium, a hyper-refined drug needed by the Ornarans to fight a plague on their planet. Unfortunately, the payment for the drug goes down with the ship. The emissaries from the other planet, the one that produces the drug, don’t want to let go of the …
Memoirs/S.Holmes Cardboard Box
Posted by admin on September 7th, 2010 -->
From Amazon.com
Controversial upon its first publication in 1893, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Cardboard Box confronts some nasty consequences of adultery. In this Granada Television production of the story, Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett) and Dr. Watson (Edward Hardwicke) link the grisly mailing of two severed human ears with a complicated love triangle between the Cushing sisters and a man who married one of them. Holmes, an expert in ears, naturally (having written two separate monographs on them), has no problem with the mystery of where they came from. But toward what end mortals pursue “this circle of misery, violence, and fear” is another question. In ill health at the time and near the end of his run as the famous detectiv…
Baby Songs Goodnight
Posted by admin on September 7th, 2010 -->
From Amazon.com
This award-winning series entertains babies with colorful images, and toddlers through first-graders with familiar situations and concerns. This installment features lullabies designed for naptime, your too-tired-to-read-aloud nights, or those times when the kids just need to calm down. Accompanying the songs are kid-style music videos featuring such whimsical fantasies as rocking grandmas floating in mid-air, kids playing with their favorite stuffed animal suddenly grown life-size, and teddy bears in formal wear waltzing the afternoon away. Sleep-deprived parents will appreciate the frazzled couple playing bed merry-go-round with their two young ones in “Sleep On.” In case you’re worried about exposing you…
In Footsteps of Alexander the Great
Posted by admin on September 7th, 2010 -->
From Amazon.com
British filmmaker Michael Wood embarks on an idiosyncratic journey of 20,000 miles tracing the expedition of Alexander the Great in this captivating documentary. Relying on the words of Greek and Roman historians, Wood sought to follow Alexander’s route of world conquest as closely as possible, and it is simply amazing how much folklore about the great general he is able to pick up on the way. Beginning in Greece and proceeding through 16 countries, including Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, and India, Wood listens intently to local storytellers who are still passing down the legends of Alexander. In one fascinating segment, Wood is barred from entering Iraq, but he is able to view the terrain on which A…
Dora the Explorer: To the Rescue
Posted by admin on September 7th, 2010 -->
From Amazon.com
Similar to the interactive environment of Blue’s Clues, but geared toward a younger audience, comes Dora the Explorer, a fully animated Nick Jr. cartoon. Like all Dora episodes, To the Rescue resembles a computer game (sans mouse and cursor) to teach Spanish, number and object recognition, deduction, reasoning, and early math skills. Its host is a girl, not much older than her viewers, with a sunny disposition, bilingual abilities, and a no-nonsense approach to problem solving; in other words, a worthy role model for toddlers and preschoolers who willingly play along with the show’s format. In the first of two 25-minute segments, Dora discovers that three award-winning piglets have escaped from their pen….
Up in Smoke
Posted by admin on September 7th, 2010 -->
From Amazon.com
Cheech & Chong’s first cannabis comedy is also their best, a souvenir from the more carefree days before “Just Say No,” when people did not feel so defensive about inhaling. In 1978, the prevailing spirit was more like “Just Say Blow.” Even New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael liked it (the movie, that is), adding that it was “an exploitation slapstick comedy, rather than a family picture, such as Blazing Saddles or High Anxiety–which means that it’s dirtier, wilder, and sillier.” The story has to do with bumbling potheads Cheech & Chong searching for primo bud, while being tailed by a team of inept law-enforcement officers, led by Sgt. Stedenko (Stacy Keach). Sample dialogue: When a cop pulls them over to ask if t…
