Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra are back together again!
Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra are back after starring "Anchors Aweigh", and they're better than ever! Gene Kelly is Eddie O'Brien and Frank Sinatra is Dennis Ryan, two baseball players for the champion team the Wolves, in the off-season they're vaudeville stars. As the baseball season begins to start, the Wolves are horrified to hear that there's a new owner for the team, K.C. Higgins, who's going to 'actively take part in the training'! But as it turns out, the mysterious K.C. Higgins's first name is Katherine (Esther Williams), meaning she's a woman! Womanizer Eddie soon becomes frustrated when the beautiful Katherine doesn't fall for any of his charms, and sparks fly as the two soon become enemies. On the other hand, Dennis begins to fall in love with her but does she return his love? Also starring are Jules Munshin as Nat Goldberg, Eddie and Dennis's best baseball buddy, Betty Garrett as Shirly Delwyn who has her eye on Dennis, and Edward Arnold as Joe Lorgan who is a baseball...

"Strictly U.S.A"
This is an awesome movie! I think its better than Anchors Aweigh. Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra are two baseball players named Eddie O'Brien and Dennis Ryan who play for the Wolves. During the off-season Eddie and Dennis are vaudeville stars. When they return for the baseball season the whole team is horrifed to hear that the new owner K.C. Higgins wants to take an active part in coaching. As it turns out the K in K.C. Higgins happens to stand for Katherine (Esther Williams) so the new owner is a woman. Katherine dosn't fall for womanizer Eddie so the two don't get along at all!! Dennis does fall for her though, but Katherine isn't in love with him. Shirley Delwyn (Betty Garrett) has her eyes on Dennis and she won't give up on him! Also in the cast is Jules Munshin who plays Nat Goldberg, Dennis and Eddie's baseball pal.

This movie has a lot of great music.

The songs include "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" Frank and Gene sing this song as their vaudeville act. Also...

Take Me Out Is A HOME RUN!!!
This movie isn't just about baseball. It's about so much more! Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly are a great pair that really reveal their true friendship through the camera. This film has great music sung by Esther Williams (yes there's a pool scene. You can't have Esther in a movie without her swimming and singing at least once!), Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Betty Garrett. Is that an all-star cast or what!!! These are the best of the best.
Just like in On The Town, Frank and Gene are looking for women, and when a new one comes to town they both are determined to win her over!
As for a little bit of trivia- Frank Sinatra had no idea how to dance! (You'd never guess that huh?) But for this film, he worked with Gene Kelly for HOURS to get his routines down, because he was determined to make the movie the best it could be.
The movie is also fast-paced. Just when you think about getting bored, another song begins and the storyline progresses. I'm not a big fan of...

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Guadalcanal: The Island Of Death

Outstanding!
This is a spectacular documentary on Guadalcanal. It is the 2 disc version of the Timeless Media Group's Guadalcanal - Island of Death Documentary. There is a one disc version which has 9 reviews. This one has the wrong pubisher listed on the Amazon description which is why it might not get the proper attention it deserves.

It is nearly 4 hours (230 minutes) in length and does a specatacular job of telling the story. It contains commentary from 3 different historians and several veterans of the battle. It does a great job of highighting the ships lost in the various naval engagements. It does a nice job of comparing the aircraft involved. It uses computer animated maps to show troop movements for the major battles.

Here are the chapters on the two discs.

DISC 1
day of infamy* (does not appear on the one disc version of this video)
the rising sun* (does not appear on the one disc version of this video)
the coral sea* (does not appear...

Good history lesson
Good video, has good set up, i.e. battles before Guadalcanal. Covers all the sea battles around the island, Salvo island etc. Covers the Cactus air force and their air battles.

It Could Have Been Better
This production does have some interesting facts it presents, such as how the Navy Department tackled logistic problems and ship reinforcement during the first six months of the Japan-USA war, and the fact that other carrier based raids were carried out against the Japanese in the western Pacific during the period of the Dolittle raid on Tokyo. Food poisoning our Marines and sailors came down with when they were fed spoiled chicken (green meat)during the voyage from California to New Zealand, which is disgracefull.

But there are problems. First, one of the historians they interview is given to exageration, such as statements he made regarding the Battle of the Coral Sea. He states correctly that this was the first carrier vs. carrier battle in naval history, and the first naval battle in which neither fleet's ships sighted each other from on deck. But then, as if to confirm or emphasize these points, he states that only the carriers were engaged in the combat. Well, this is...

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The Bill Engvall Show: The Complete First Season

Great series, can't wait until season 2 comes to DVD
We really enjoy Bill Envall's comedy, but living in the UK, we get to see precious little of his work. So we were pleased to see he had his own series available on DVD and weren't disappointed. It's great fun, with really likeable characters - this is well observed comedy and anyone with teenage kids will recognise many of the situations. It started slowly in the early episodes, but got better and better and it's just a shame that there were only 8 episodes in series 1. It left us really wanting more!
I read that the show has just started a second series on TV in the US, so hopefully there will be more episodes to enjoy this year and roll on the release of series 2 on DVD so that we can enjoy it here in the UK too!
Well done Bill.

Pretty good show
This show is surprisingly good. The 8 episodes here feature some pretty original stories and solid writing. Engvall and Nancy Travis make for interesting if somewhat standard TV parents. The kids are your standard TV smart alecs but not as annoyingly so as most. The supporting cast, however, is less than good.
This is a fun little family friendly show and better than most sitcoms on TV these days

cool show and funny too!
Bill does a good acting job along with the others in the show.
I just happen to see the show on cable and I wanted it for my collection of DVD's.
Great show.

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A Dirty Carnival

You Reap what you Sow....
There has been an overflow of South Korean crime thrillers and even Hong Kong crime dramas have lost a lot of its gritty charisma. A DIRTY CARNIVAL is a crime thriller that has achieved something that other Korean thrillers have failed to do. Director/writer Yu Ha (Once upon a Time in High school) has delivered a crime thriller that is gritty, realistic, emotionally-driven with well-rounded characters that absolutely rivals the best crime dramas that seemed mixed in the usual Hong Kong grittiness with a bit of "Good Fellas" mixed in.

Byung-Doo Kim (Jo-In Seong) is a 29 year old petty gangster who is burdened with the responsibility of caring for an ailing mother, a brother who wants to become a gangster and his family is about to lose their home. He realizes that he cannot continue on like this and he has to also take care of his gang under gang Lieutenant Sang Chul (Yoon Jae Moon). Byung-Doo seizes the moment when the Gang's main Boss; Hwang (Jeon Ho-Jin) who is pestered...

If Crime Thrillers are Your Poison.....
...check this out. It's about as good as they get.

Byung-du is a lower level thug in the hoodlum ladder. He works for a mid-level thug. Neither he or his crew make that much money so his sick mom and his school tuition strapped sister aren't getting quite the attention they deserve. He sees an opportunity to move up and he grabs it. Things go well for him. More money and more prestige. Through all of this he is trying to woo a woman and help his novice, film-director friend make his first feature length film. Of course, the road to bliss isn't well paved and all good things must come to an end.

This is some great, nearly classic style film making. The characters are introduced and the story unfolds in such smooth fashion you can practically set your watch to it. The main character, Byung-du is very likable. He doesn't particularly like being a gangster but it's all he's good at. He's failed at every other job he's tried. And he likes his friends. The girl he's...

Probably the best Gangster film I've ever seen!!!!
This is what a gangster film she be like. Really good acting and lots "real" fight scenes. Jo In-Sung is really great and I was able to sympathize with his character.

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Tears of the Sun [UMD for PSP]

John McCain: Navy SEAL?
Tears of the Sun is more than what the trailers make it out to be. It's not your normal action movie, meaning the plot isn't just an excuse to have lots of things blow up. The story focuses more on the internal struggles of Willis's character than anything else. If you watched the trailer and were hoping for Die Hard 4: The African Edition, you will be sorely disappointed.

The plot revolves around a mission by US Navy SEALs to go into a hostile area of Nigeria and rescue an American doctor. The doctor (Monica Bellucci) is living at Mission, taking care of sick and dying Nigerians. Getting the doctor out is only a minor hassle, the real trouble begins when Willis' characters internal struggles of following orders vs. doing what is right get the best of him and he decides to try and save all the Nigerian patients. From there all hell breaks loose and there are a few surprises before the end.

As I said before, this is not your normal action movie. It doesn't go gonzo on the...

Tears of the Sun is well worth seeing
Tears of the Sun is a first class war movie in the realistic style of Black Hawk Down. The plot centers on a mission by US Navy SEALs to rescue an American doctor at a mission in Nigeria during a civil war.
Bruce Willis stars as the officer commanding the SEAL detachment. He and the other actors potraying SEALs received training from real SEALs and, therefore, come across as authentic instead of the usual Hollywood portayal of speical operators as undiscplined psychopaths.
The level of violence in this movie is high as expected in a war movie, but it is never exaggerated or cartoonish. Neither is it included just to keep the excitement level up. Instead, violence is portrayed as the inevitable product of war and is shown realistically as real human suffering.
The movie is very tightly edited and moves quickly. There are no long periods of chatter and no padding. The movie gets right into the story it intends to tell and moves along quickly. I was surprised when...

Tears [of the Sun]
Tears of the Sun brings Bruce Willis back to the rebel-with-a-cause-and-a-big-gun role. This isn't a date movie. Lots of guerrilla combat, lots of blood and a subplot that is revealed only well into the movie -- and I won't spoil it for you. If the basic plot is nothing new, the film comes together very well, and it outclasses a lot of other action flicks.

Willis (as Lt. Waters) leads his men into Nigeria to rescue an American doctor. In a fit of conscience, after having achieved his mission, Waters orders his choppers to return so that he can rescue the band of doomed refugees. We feel good about that. Especially after seeing what the Nigerian rebels did to the hospital after Waters and company evacuated. If you accept that a special forces lieutenant would disobey orders and follow his conscience, the rest of the story unfolds well.

Visually, Tears of the Sun is a stunner. You will feel as though you spent a couple of hours in the rain forest. Some of the gorier scenes look like...

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Saturday Night Live: The Complete Third Season, 1977-1978

NBC SNL starring The Not Ready for Primetime Players (plus Bill Murray)
This season still features the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players - John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris,Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman. Plus newcomer Bill Murray.

When SNL (at this time it was NBC's Saturday Night Live) first came on it changed the variety format from skits and musical numbers to what is now called sketch comedy with music from popular and upcoming rock groups. Each episode was "hosted" by an actor who was usually promoting their new film.

Each show had an opening skit that end with "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night", the credits followed, then the guest host would come out do some sort of monologue. This would fade into either an original SNL cast commercial (remember The Taste Bud's for Budweiser) or a parody of a commercial. Skit, musical guest, skit, Weekend Update, skit, second musical number, skit and closing.

The show had a number of reoccuring skits, which were rotated to keep them fresh...

Better than you remember
Many reviewers say these early Saturday Night Live seasons are products of their times, that they aren't nearly as funny today as we all thought they were back then. To that I say dude, what have you been smokin'? Yes, I was one of those who watched these shows in college, usually at a party where everyone was, shall we say, already in a purple haze. But thinking that's what made these shows great is simply revisionist history.

Sure there are some dated cultural jokes, a few lame musical guests and an occasional skit that falls flat. However, each episode is still, for the most part, solidly entertaining. As I sat down with these discs today partaking of nothing stronger than a few Diet Cokes, what I noticed is just how watchable these shows still are. Even when not at their best, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin and the others each did at least interesting work, and always in their own personal style. What resulted was a true comedy variety...

SNL Gang Hits It's Stride
This third season, along with the fourth, represent the height of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players. For the first time, we are introduced to The Blues Brothers, The Festrunk Brothers, Roseanne Roseannadanna, Point Counterpoint, The Olympia Restaurant and many others. Favorites such as the Coneheads and the Samurai return in force as well.

I taped most of this season in its entirety over the years, and am quite familiar with the strength of these episodes. I especially like the Steve Martin/Blues Brothers appearance, as well as the season-ender with Buck Henry/Sun Ra.

I've shared my thoughts on the value of the original SNL before, so instead, I'd like to point out a few highlights to look forward to:

1. Chevy Chase returns for first time hosting duties on 02/18/78. There was quite a bit of backstage animosity/tension towards him, and one particular spat ensued over the Weekend Update anchoring duties. Bill Murray, still the "new kid," was...

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Wager

Wholesome, filled with value messages
A Christian film starring Randy Travis (country western/gospel singer), Nancy Stafford (Matlock) and Candace Cameron Bure (Full House)

Michael Steel (Randy Travis) is a hot commodity in Hollywood. He's been nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award and is riding high. This nomination is a 'big deal' for Michael as he's experienced a great deal of prejudice for his faith as a Christian.

Michael's faith is tested in the days before the Academy Award presentation. His wife has filed for divorce because she feels neglected, the director of his current film demands he shoot a scene that is in opposition to his belief of right and wrong (and one that has been covered in his contract), the female star (Candace Cameron Bure) of the film makes untrue allegations involving her relationship with Michael, and a journalist with an axe to grind reports a story about Michael and a young child.

With his life falling apart, Michael seeks advice and refuge with his...

A safe bet
As a compelling mixture of the biblical book of Job and the Sermon on the Mount, The Wager is a good story, with many surprising twists and relevant insights. The novel, written by Bill Myers, is a powerful tale of trials and triumphs. However, when the printed story moved to DVD, some of the intensity was lost in the media conversion. While still a riveting tale, it could have had more impact if the actors showed a greater emotional involvement in the volatile situations.

Michael Steel (Randy Travis) is about to make cinema history as the first Christian actor nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards. Yet, God has cast him in a different starring role. When Satan claims that no one can live the Sermon on the Mount in today's society, Michael gets the lead role in this supernatural drama. In the space of ten tension-filled days, his life gets bombarded from every possible angle. From his personal life to his marriage to his career, Michael has to hold on to his faith...

The Wager has a great message
I enjoyed this movie very much, it has a wonderful message and you just need to over look the acting, it is the message that I truely enjoyed. It is worth seeing. I gave it a 4 for the acting and really it is worth a 5 for the message it gives.

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