Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy

Educational entertainment DVD--a joy to view & hear
GREAT, though I'm no Broadway musicals expert. This DVD made me want to watch musical after musical after musical. This DVD documentary considers a number of significant and much acclaimed shows. My experience with musicals has been enjoyable, but never one presented in NYC. It is not a definitive list but the people behind the productions discussed do tend to be heavily Jewish, the reason for the special emphasis and look at one nationality's impact on the art form. Note the emphasis is more on Jewish artists' (acting, writing, composing, directing) culture, not religion.

With narration by Joel Grey, it begins with early Yiddish theater--quickly the Broadway American Musical began to draw inspiration heavily from the NYC Jewish population. In 1920s 1 in 4 of NYC population was Jewish, partially explaining the heavy participation in musical production. Of course there are exceptions noted on this documentary. A major one being Cole Porter, who actually had 3 shows flops...

Disappointing disks
It's an interesting documentary on the subject and the interviews are insightful but the lack of clips of full musical numbers is very disappointing and lets face it, most composers do not have the voice to sing their music. Disk 2 is supposed to have 3 hours of additional content including performances, however, unless they are hidden in an "easter egg" I have not found them,

I loved it!
This is a great story about telling great stories! And it is beautifully done. It pulled me in and I did not want to leave - even at the end!

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Legacy: The Complete Series

Bring it back
I just watched the series and loved each and everyone. I can't remember when I enjoyed a series/movie as much as I have this one. It was incredible. Like the other reviewers, I was saddened by the ending and wished it would have been continued. I hope that someone will see the real value of this series and produce more of them. Wonderful characters that fit perfectly into their roles. We need more movies like this one to inspire and uplift us. All I can say is FANTASTIC!!

So disappointed!
What a wonderful, wholesome family show. Real life lessons in a wonderful family setting. But like so many shows that are worth watching and great for the whole family it was pulled and replaced with a show of violence and mayhem. Seems the world is more interested in violence, nudity and non family values. What a shame,but when you take God out of the equation that is what happens. I hope a network re looks at this series and brings it back to finish it in the right way. We need more good family programming.

Good show...but this set is incomplete
We were really interested in this show but the packaging is misleading...it is 18 episodes, but there is no "closure"...Did they cancel suddenly and fail to alert the writers so that the story could be completed in a satisfactory manner? It "ends" with the entire family at odds with the (usually great) father, and with a couple of scammers about to murder him and fight the children for the horse farm. Looks almost like a season ending "cliff hanger"...but I can't find more DVD's...so would not recommend it at this point.
The music and scenery are beautiful, and the characters are well developed and interesting. It's extremely fictional, but entertaining. We were just disappointed with the ending.
It's set in Kentucky, post Civil War...a widower and his four children plus an "orphan" he took in who is a love interest for the oldest daughter as well as creating some competition with the two sons. The Father is wonderful, loving and wise--some episodes had us laughing...

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Home of the Brave [HD]

A Very Powerful Movie
Having had an opportunity to see this movie over a year ago, I have to admit going to see it without any idea of who Viola Liuzzo was or what part she played in the civil rights movement. The movie tells the story of who Viola Liuzzo was through the eyes of her contempararies and of her children, and the effect that her sacrifice had on all of them. In this sense, and with the very apt narration of Stockard Channing, this story is told with both passion and reverance. Also too, the story tells of all too human frailties in both Viola and her children, and as such deserves all the more respect for trying to portray the fact that all of those that we look up to as heros and/or martyrs are just as human as ourselves. For myself, the movie gave me a much greater understanding of what life was like during that period of my childhood that I had only been briefly aware of during the nightly newscasts. Too, the movie portrays what a terrible price can be paid by family when one stands up for...

first rate documentary
Although nowhere near as well known as Martin Luther King Jr. or Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo earned her place in American history by also becoming a martyr to the cause of civil rights. A white woman who was an activist long before it became fashionable to be one, Liuzzo could have chosen to live her life in quiet anonymity, safely ensconced with her husband and five children in their middle class home in Detroit. Instead, she headed to the South to lend her services as a nurse for the civil rights march in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965, a day that came to be known as "Black Sunday." For on that day, Liuzzo was gunned down while driving along a deserted road by four members of the Ku Klux Klan. "Home of the Brave" tells us her story.

In form and style, this is a fairly conventional documentary, combining footage from the past with present-day interviews with friends and family members of the victim. Through both memories and documented evidence, the movie paints the...

Remembering Viola Liuzzo, a Real Hero
The title of this documentary is very misleading and the subject of the film is far too important to be overlooked. I remember watching the television news report of the murder of Viola Liuzzo when I was a teenager in the 1960s. This story made a profound impact on me. So much so, that I remember the bullet riddled station wagon and I have always remembered her name--Viola Liuzzo. Being an African-American teenager at the time, I understood just how important the civil rights movement was when they murdered a white woman. Since that time, in my travels and years of teaching English at college and in high school, I always ask people if they know the name Viola Liuzzo and sadly, no one says yes. So I remind them. This documentary is painful to watch when you understand just how she was slandered and maligned, how her family had to live with the pain of losing her and the insult of having her reputation destroyed because she was doing a good thing. I teach my students about heroes,...

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The Dark Knight [Blu-ray Steelbook]

Great Film - Buy the Single Disc Version!
What has been said about the Dark Knight cannot be elaborated on - so I won't. The film is muscling its way into my #1 favorite comic movie adaptation of all time.

The reason for my review is in hopes of saving you some money. This double disc Special Edition doesn't deliver the price you pay for it. There isn't even deleted scenes!!! I would save your very hard earned dollars and buy the single disc version and wait for the inevitable ULTIMATE re-release that will come later on down the road.

But nonetheless, a great film - you will not be dissapointed; I just wish the studio would have given a better Special Edition release than what we have here. So enjoy!

The Dark Masterpiece Surpasses the Hype
Christopher Nolan has a vision. And whether you agree with it or not, he undeniably completes it in "The Dark Knight"--a vicious, engrossing, overwhelming, intelligent event- film that re-defines 'comic-book-flicks'. In Nolan's grim, dark-depiction of Gotham-City (the crime-ridden hell protected by legendary superhero Batman), the director strives to make everything real (something he began in the well-received "Batman Begins"). He makes it plausible, possible. And yet there's more to it: just as 'Begins' was a dissection of myth, the nature of symbols and heroes, 'Knight' is the escalation of that notion. It's a biblical- confrontation of 'good-and-evil', yet as 'good-and-evil' really exist: a conflict of ideals, something that can't be purely-defined but that is relative to a viewpoint. In Nolan's world, the line of villainy and heroism isn't crossed... it's non-existent. The bad-guys don't see themselves as bad-guys, and as such something so unnervingly-real comes across it might...

A little batpod & case info
Ok, the movie is a 5 star, this is a little info on the case and bat pod if anyone is curious about it size. We have it at work and I have already seen it. It is actually VERY small, the case and the bat pod. The bat pod is maybe 4"-5" long, and the case is just a bit larger then the blu rays. I was expecting a bat pod the size of the one available at in the toys at most stores which is 10"-12" long.
AT $50+ dollars, I would get the Bluray 2 disc and the $20 12" bat pod, which s a much better bat pod and value in my opinion.

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Hayride [HD]

I WANT TO BE YOUR SLEDGEHAMMER
This pleasant low budget horror film takes place in LA (Lower Alabama). It has a main plot and a minor subplot. Steven (Jeremy Ivy) brings his girlfriend Amanda (Sherri Eakin) home with him around Halloween. We get to hear and see some of the local flavor as the film builds their character, lines like, "You're not from around here" and "roads that go no where." And of course every proud small town in the south has "the best BBQ in the state." They plan to take Capt. Morgan's Haunted Hayride, a local tradition which features "pitchfork man" based on a local story. Here in Barnwell, we have "rakeman." He doesn't kill people, he just rakes leaves, sort of like Sling-blade, but creepier.

Meanwhile a killer has escaped who might pass for Toj Johnson's son. In the opening scene the killer walks slow dragging an ax. He is able to catch up to a young panicking female at a flat out run...okay she stopped to rest for a second. A pair of odd couple cops are looking for him. Their...

Surprisingly Well-made...
I'm usually not a big fan of horror/slasher movies but this one was surprisingly enjoyable and well-made. I saw a showing of "Hayride" at an actual corn maze in Summerdale, Alabama.
The atmosphere may have added to the spookiness of the film because there were a few moments (I'm not embarrassed to say) I almost jumped out of my seat. The acting was alot better than I expected, especially for a lower budget horror movie. And a pretty awesome twist at the end.
Besides a few moments where the audio is a little bad, it was pretty professionally made. Overall I really enjoyed Hayride! 4 Stars

Local Writer/Director does well with this Movie
As a Movie Lover I'm not a Slasher/Horror Movie Fan. This Movie was good and not to much Blood. Some gory parts but much less than I expected. Had a easy story to follow. Cool it was shot in my hometown of Fairhope, Alabama. For a low budget movie, the Director/Producer Terron R. Parsons (I know his Mom) did a good job. I'd watch it again. I gave it a 5 Star rating because of the talent effort on Terron's behalf, the familiar background areas, the interesting storyline and it kept me glued to my seat. Heard Hayride 2 was now being made, must be because of the twist at the end of Hayride. Watch it for yourself and see what you think. -Signed Movielover supports this local made Film.

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Grifters [Blu-ray]

ELEVATOR TO HELL
Produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Stephen Frears, THE GRIFTERS is a winner. With three top actors, Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening and John Cusack, Frears invites us to a non-stop ride to hell.

Caught between his mother and his girl-friend, John Cusack will have a hard time to survive and become a man. You can almost touch the hate those two women feel for each other. Their last encounter is really a scene you will remember : set in Phoenix, in a motel, in a subtle variation of PSYCHO's first murder, it is a moment of great cinema.

Cusack is outstanding as the gentle grifter, Frear's cinematography is first class and Anjelica has never been so devilish. No doubt about it, THE GRIFTERS is a masterpiece of the film noir genre.

A DVD that bleeds.

Nice Special Edition of a great movie
A fantastic movie about con artists. The tone of this movie is perfect: utterly unsentimental, deadpan, cool and calculated. Great score, great performances (not just the three leads, there are tons of bit parts that are very memorable), great dialogue. The pacing is snappy. I'm not going to say the movie is flawless, but honestly I can't think of anything particularly negative to say about it.

The DVD is a modest collector's edition. Some may say the extra features are a bit spare, but what is here is very useful and informative. The commentary track is consistantly listenable. There are four participants: the director, the screenwriter, and stars Cusack and Huston. The four were recorded separately and edited together seamlessly to make an entertaining and insightful track. Also here are two short but well-made featurettes, one covers the making of the film and the other sheds some light on the work of the author who wrote the book upon which the film is based.

Superb
I've never been a John Cusack fan, but he's utterly riveting in the role of a coming-of-age grifter caught between two indelible women. Annette Bening, at least here, is a pure force of nature, a sexy tsunami overwhelming everything in her path. And Anjelica Huston??? Her entire career has been one splendid performance after another, and this is one of her finest. You simply cannot take your eyes off her. The interaction of these three is one of the best examples of ensemble acting outside of an Altman film. And the little subtleties around these three -- from the brilliant set piece of the orange scene to the almost-identical dresses worn by Lily and Myra to Elmer Bernstein's moody score -- make The Grifters a compelling experience. The only disappointment is that the CD has NO extras at all, but you could certainly make the case that this is a movie that can stand completely on its own.

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Valentin (English Subtitled) [HD]

Emotional Life of a 9-Year-Old Boy.
"Valentin" is director Alejandro Agresti's semi-autobiographical tribute to the emotional strength of children. Valentin (Rodrigo Noya) is a 9-year-old boy living with his grandmother (Carmen Maura) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1969. His grandmother loves him, but misses her recently deceased husband desperately and complains constantly of her remaining family. Valentin dreams of being an astronaut and longs for his mother, whom he has not been allowed to see since his parents' divorce. When Valentin's ill-tempered father (Alejandro Agresti) introduces his son to Leticia (Julieta Cardinali), the latest in a long string of girlfriends, Valentin takes to her immediately, and feels that his life is looking brighter.

If "Valentin" were a little older, this might be called a coming-of-age story. Instead, it is a story of this boy's ability to adapt, to find hope in the events around him, and to advance his own cause in his own way. Valentin is an opinionated child, sometimes to...

"It will get me to the moon"
The charm that this heartwarming movie possesses is based on two factors, the outstanding screenplay by Agresti and the unbelievable performance of a small kid that makes his debut on the big screen, Rodrigo Noya. The film depicts a series of events in Valentin's life when he was eight years old, with the kid himself narrating these events. This characteristic provides the story with an unusual freshness and candor, with the plain language used by most kids being a salient feature of this production.

Valentin lives with his grandmother (Carmen Maura) in a modest house in a barrio of Buenos Aires. He is obsessed with being an astronaut and is already practicing holding his breath, walking in the absence of gravity and dressing up in the required attire; the scene in which he puts on his home made astronaut suit is enough to make this movie worth watching. The reasons for Valentin living with his grandmother are that his mother abandoned him and his father a while back and...

About a boy looking for a family
I liked "Valentin."

It walks through a few weeks of a boy's life, Valentin, as he navigates his days living with a suspicious, protective grandmother. His dad is caught up in his own life, his mother is apparently found some unnamed trouble, and so Valentin is in the care of his father's mother.

It has the sweetness and romance of "Cinema Paradiso," the charm of "The Wonder Years," the subtle dramatic humor of "Lost in Yonkers," and the uncanny real-time wisdom of "Simon Birch."

His father visits whenever he falls in love, and although Valentin loves his father, he knows the relationship is, at best, casual. The father is somewhat abusive, but the point made isn't that, but how he simply is not around.

When the father meets Leticia, a young woman half his age, he introduces them. Valentin falls for her completely, while Leticia listens carefully. To him, she is mother potential. He trusts her, but she is the wiser of the two, and finds that...

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