Love and Other Disasters

good movie that no one knows about
Love and Other Disasters is a film that very few people even know about. I happened to catch it, maybe 4 years ago as part of the Toronto International Film Fesival, when it was one of the movies showing that year. I saw it with two friends and we all enjoyed it very much! It's light...it's funny...it's cute...a great date movie...and has something for all adults, gay and straight alike (as it has a slight gay element) who like a good romantic comedy. After we saw it.... we never heard another thing about it. It never apparently found a distributor, and never was shown in theaters, to my knowledge. About three years later...it appeared on DVD. I have owned a copy since it came out on DVD and we had one of our "Movie nights" at our home with 8 or 9 friends over, and everyone enjoyed it a lot!

What amazes me in the movie business is all of the total garbage movies that get made and shown in theaters every week..... bad, awful, poorly made and poorly acted films that...

Brittany Murphy 1977-2009
It was such a shame when young and vivacious Brittany Murphy died in December 2009 at age 32, depriving the film world of her sunny countenance. Along with the biopic of rapper Eminem, 8 Mile -- 8 Mile (Widescreen Edition) -- this was my favorite Brittany Murphy film.

A few words of disclosure are necessary about this film. "Love and Other Disasters" is a romantic comedy set in London. There is not one original idea in the script and just about every movie cliche to be found in romantic comedies is in this movie to wit:
-- Murphy is a fashion designer with a mixed up love life.
-- She befriends a gay photographer (who is actually not gay) that loves her.
-- There are several other gay male characters in the film with mixed up love lives.
-- In fact, all the characters in the film have a mixed up love life.
-- All the actors are employed in the arts -- once writes a screeplay...

Difficult to dislike
Whatever your taste in good movies, you will like at least some parts, if not all, of this movie. Even if you find it hard to embrace this movie, you will find it even harder to dislike it.

At the risk of being controversial, I will rate this movie above multi-threaded ensemble movies like "Love Actually", "Crash", "Valentine's Day" and "New York, I Love You". The surprise is in a singular actress carrying the entire movie, supported by a cast of relatively unknown but competent actors.

As I am writing this review, James Taylor is coming on "live" at the Oscar presentation (this is Oscar night, 7th March in the USA) with Brittany Murphy being remembered on screeen, and her image reprised at the end of Taylor's solo "In My Life". We will never know if she would earn an Oscar one day, but from her performance in this movie, it is not possible to rule out her future potential. I have watched "Ramen Girl", "Uptown Girls" and the Futurama with Brittany's voice,...

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Soldier [HD]

To enter the future you have to leave the past.
Soldier is a rare experience that is far more than the plot, which has been outlined by the editorial comments. This is a journey taken by a strong warrior into his own humanity. I cannot even count the number of times that I have watched this movie, but I know it is more than twenty. I see more each time.

Kurt Russell's extraordinary and powerful acting skills make Sergeant Todd real. Successfully creating a character without dialogue is an art -- and he mastered it. This movie provides insight into today's violent world as well.

Todd has known nothing but war or training since he was born. He was conscripted in the hospital; he never knew love, or laughter, or how to play. He obeyed orders and did not speak unless spoken to. The perfect soldier could not have emotions. If the only way to kill an enemy was to kill innocent victims, then he did what was required.

Todd is the best soldier of the "old timers," and he has been bested a new, genetically...

Fear . . .Discipline
This is one of the great, unsung science fiction films of recent times. The story revolves around a future where soldiers are segregated and trained from the crib to be merciless, killing machines. Kurt Russel, in a great performance, plays one of these soldiers who are soon to be replaced by a genetically enhanced new breed of soldier. Sgt. Todd 3465 (Russel) is believed killed in a training exercise and disposed of like yesterday's garbage on a waste-disposal planet. He survives, finds refuge amongst a colony of planet refugees, and tries to fit in.

This is, on a very rewarding level, a tremendous action film. Russel's nemesis in the film, Sgt. Caine 607 (played by Jason Scott Lee) is an imposing presence, and the fight scenes between the two are excellent and convincing. The special effects and battle scenes are impressive as well, and really transport you to a harsh, bleak, metallic future.

On another level the film is about the discovery of emotion in the highly trained...

One soldier against the dictatorship. -- Shirley Keller
It's a 10. Superb acting by Kurt Russell; directed by Paul Anderson, genius behind _Blade Runner_. He captured the essence of dictatorship and its opposite: individualism. Initially the protagonist, Todd, follows orders, used as a means to the ends of the State, a fighting machine who's then discarded. But Todd survives being dumped on a heap of refuse on a desert planet, to make his way to a small settlement of free people. There he learns what it means to have selfish values and to love a woman. When the totalitarians return to threaten her, only Todd can destroy them. Fight scenes and interpersonal dynamics were masterfully done. This is not a simplistic action movie with bullets flying everywhere. This is action melded with intellectual strategy, melded with a deep philosophical message. A sci fi classic, right along with Blade Runner.

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And Then Came Lola

Waste of celluloid!
Has the bar been set so low for lesbian cinema that movie watchers would actually review this movie with high marks? Apparently, the answer to that question is yes. The script and acting are so bad, I had to actually stop it at times and cleanse my palette while watching the Discovery Channel. Out of respect for gay cinema, I watched the whole movie. That's over an hour of my life that I will never get back. The acting wasn't even as good as an NYU student film and the places left in the script for a bit of improv ended up being stilted and awkward because the actors were terrible. The overt and awkward sexual references throughout the film became hard to watch. They were inappropriate at times and at others just plain stupid. Ugh. I hope there are better projects in store for the writers/director/actors of this film because this one is forgettable.

Did I miss something?
A lot of people seemed to like this movie and I'm surprised by that. I thought it was boring. It reminded me of a lesbian version of groundhog's day, repeating the day until she got it right. I must have missed something because it seemed to me that two thirds of this film was spent watching a character run... and run....and run... and run.....

Had potential, but it was lost in the run
The plot? Lesbian A has to rush a set of portfolio photos into the waiting hands of girlfriend Lesbian B. On the way there she runs around San Francisco, encounters various obstacles, does some soul searching, and gets to repeat the same journey in three different versions. Because it's about lesbian characters set in North America, sitting in front of a psychotherapist at some point is inevitable. What is absolutely amazing about this film, however, is that a movie about lesbians with San Francisco as the location has not one, single dyke in it -- not even in the background of the lesbian bar where Lesbian B hangs out for most of its 71 minutes. In Trendy Lesbian Planet, the main characters can pass for straight (in comfortable shoes, of course), have fashionably slender figures, and dildos are never too far from reach. But not even the occasional (ho-hum) sex in this film could keep me from picking up the newspaper to finish reading it.

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Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

"Guys, we've really got to go quite quickly. I've just accidentally got engaged to Marilyn Monroe."
I'm not saying that this is the best Doctor Who Christmas Special, but I am saying it's my favorite one. Cripes, what would we do without cell phones or the Internet or BBC America? Matt Smith as the eleventh Doctor with his first festival episode, and I was all anticipate-y. Steven Moffat crafts a perfect tale inspired by Charles Dickens' classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The twists come plenty and frequently.

We first catch up to the Doctor's companions - the newlyweds Amy Pond and Rory Williams - on Christmas Eve as they honeymoon in a luxurious space liner carrying more than four thousand passengers. One of the best things about this episode is that things race along at a heady clip. It's not long at all before the space vessel goes all wonky, gets trapped within the peculiar cloud belt of a human-habitated planet. Amy Pond transmits a distress signal to the Doctor, who arrives and learns that salvation lies solely at the hands of the planet's most powerful man, Kazran Sardick...

A brilliant, entertaining Christmas fairytale, Doctor Who style...
It's a rare occasion that I do a review, but I couldn't pass this one up. This Christmas special was simply brilliant. For me, it's hands down the best Christmas special to date. It's a truly magical Christmas fairytale-ish story, done in somewhat atypical Who-niverse fashion. I just loved it. I had no issues whatsoever with the characters, the casting, the story... it was all just brilliant. Even the "personal timeline" stuff didn't bother me in the slightest - it made for a compelling and somewhat awe inspiring storyline that I really enjoyed (and didn't expect!). And besides... yeah, the cardinal rule of not crossing personal timelines... rubbish, really. True Who fans can probably cite off the top of their heads a half dozen examples of when the Doctor blatantly violated that rule, going all the way back to the 3rd or 4th Doctor even. The way I looked at it was that this was not ordinary Doctor Who anyway... this was the Christmas special... and I thoroughly enjoyed the...

My favourite Dr Who Christmas Special
I am not someone who cries easily and during the David Tennant's time as the Doctor , I became tired of the emotional manipulation that I was meant to feel , but this epidode,genuinely touched me. I loved Matt Smith's performance as the Doctor. I could not keep from laughing at most of his antics but was equally moved by the bittersweet love story that we saw between Abigail and Kurzan.Of all the modern interpretations of a'Christmas Carol' I have seen , this one had the most heart.

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The Incredible Hulk: The Complete Series

It's great to have all the episodes, but a few things are missing...


This is unbelievable and probably one of the best "gifts" I ever bought, seriously....
My 6 year old son had been talking about the Hulk for several months, he plays with Hulk games as well as the on-line game. I remember telling him about the television show and how I used to watch this show every week when I was growing up.

Well a few days before Christmas this year I decided to search for the Hulk television show in the hopes that I might be able to buy the entire series. I had no idea if it was even available and it was. When I factor in the hours and hours of entertainment that this gift has brought this is an amazing deal. I figured if my son, wife and 4 year old daughter didn't watch it, I would. Well as soon as the Hulk arrived and I put on the first episode EVERYONE was glued to the tv. My wife, who never saw the original tv show and a person I did not think would be into this said, "I love it, this is really a very well done show".

We are taking our time watching the series and watch about 3 episodes a week. We are now up to the...

great content, packaging could be better designed
I just received The Incredible Hulk: The Complete Series. I watched the pilot so far, and the video looks great considering how long ago the show was on television. It looks just about as good as you can get TV content to look on DVD. The DVD menus are well done.

With regard to the content of the series, I assume most are buying the whole series because they are fans of the series.

For those who aren't fans (plot spoiler of the pilot here, though), but are of the movies, the show was and is now on DVD a much deeper story than any TV or big screen adaptation of the comic character The HULK. You have a story starting with Banner having a dream which shifts to a nightmare. First, he is having a dream of good times with the love of his life, but it turns to a nightmare when it shows the car accident that actually happened. He is only injured slightly, but his love if trapped in the car and David makes desperate attempts to get her out. From there, after he...

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Bubble Guppies / Team Umizoomi: Into the Snow We Go!

Episode Listing
This DVD contains three Winter Holiday themed episodes from the Bubble Guppies and Team Umizoomi. Amazon doesn't always do a good job on their DVD episode listings so here are the episodes that are included on this DVD:

1. Bubble Guppies - Happy Holidays, Mr. Grumpfish! - Mr. Grumpfish doesn't like the holidays, or does he?
2. Team Umizoomi - A Sledding Snow Day - UmiCar become UmiSled for sledding fun.
3. Team Umizoomi - City of Lost Penguins - Baby penguins escape and the team must rescue them.

Partly cloudy with a 66% chance of snow
This half-hearted collection only includes three episodes from the popular Nick shows "Bubble Guppies" and "Team Umizoomi". The first two ("Happy Holidays, Mr. Grumpfish" and "A Sledding Snow Day") fit the bill: these chilly adventures are lightly educational and entertaining at times. "Team Umizoomi" is definitely the weaker show, but since that episode follows the winter theme it's at least tolerable. Unfortunately, the third episode ("City of Lost Penguins") has very little to do with winter: a group of 50 penguins is scattered from the zoo and the team must rescue them using math, patterns, and all their typical tricks to outsmart The Trouble Makers. So basically, there are three episodes (60 minutes total) and only about 40 minutes of snow.

In my opinion, only the "Bubble Guppies" episode is worth watching more than once, and the $15 price tag for what amounts to 60 minutes of cartoons is pretty much a rip-off. If that weren't enough, these episodes (like most...

Enjoyable way to spend time with my grandchildren!
This combination of NickJr children's shows is perfect for my 3-year old granddaughter who loves Bubble Guppies and Team Umizoomi. She was so excited with this video that she wanted to watch it several times instead of the holiday cartoons that were playing on television.

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Aliens and the Old West [HD]

Bottom of the Barrel Theories:
After season 1, I wondered how much more material could be presented to continue these fascinating episodes. Season 2 was incredible, it gave new life for a fresh and hopefully long-running series. Unfortunately, it seems that the well is running dry as Season 3 lacks the attention-grabbing information. The quality of the material being presented has declined.

The first episode: "Aliens and the Old West" featured too much of the newly released film "Cowboys and Aliens", but did offer some interesting viewpoints. Nearly every episode that followed seemed to re-hash the same subjects of religion, spirituality, gods, and ancient traditions of man.

Many scenes elaborate on the mysteries of our past and speculate in which manner these events are interpreted, but do not offer relative connections between these events and tangible extraterrestrial theory. The show seems to be straying away from solid theories & evidence and is moving more towards superstition,...

Amusing Speculation, But The Premises Of The 16 Individual Shows Is Decidedly Hit Or Miss In The Third Season
I know the History Channel has faced a lot of criticism recently as their viewing schedule has veered away from classic historical content to shows with more entertainment pizzazz. To my mind, "Ancient Aliens" seemed the perfect program to bridge the gap. Tales of mysterious and unexplained phenomenon, folklore and legend, and intergalactic speculation cross all international boundaries and are an inherent part of ancient history and cultural iconography. And as this documentary series began in its first season, it did a good job acknowledging the various interpretations of alien myths across the globe. However, the more we progress--the theories and/or premises behind the show have become a little thinner, a little more hit or miss. I suppose that was to be expected as the program has already delved into the biggest, most well known, and most supported mysteries in earlier seasons. Thus, Season Three (while always entertaining) had its equal share of fascinating speculation...

3rd Season In The Books & Still Impressive.
It's not everyday you'll see tv shows like this that deliver great visuals from around the world along with some very interesting information. Ancient Aliens has opened up many doorways as to where our origins might be, and it's up to the viewer to either run with these possibilities or not. Most of these famous sites from this series will probably never get fully explained but one thing is for sure, we are not alone. Below, I have provided some imformation of my own for those who are interested.

Episode listing for Season 3:

* = Fair
** = Good
*** = Excellent

01) Aliens and the Old West *
02) Aliens and Monsters ***
03) Aliens and Sacred Places *
04) Aliens and Temples of Gold ***
05) Aliens and Mysterious Rituals **
06) Aliens and Ancient Engineers ***
07) Aliens, Plagues and Epidemics **
08) Aliens and Lost Worlds **
09) Aliens and Deadly Weapons **
10) Aliens and Evil Places ***
11) Aliens...

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