Devil May Cry: Level 2 & Box (Sub Dub)

Dante has alot of debt.
When I saw ADV(thought to be dead) as the localization team for this series I was suprised after they gave up Full Metal Panic like they were going out of business. This DVD box set is worth it even if it didn't come with a DVD box for Vol 1 which I got from Devil May Cry 4.Unfourtunately,the story takes place after the other Devil May Cry (sorry folks Virgil won't make an apperance)games and leads into 4 well(continue watching to find out what I'm talking about) . I recommend this to those who like horror and "strawberry sundaes".

Devil didn't just cry, it wailed
The Devil May Cry Series on the consoles has had a well earned reputation of being stylish and taxing on the thumbs. While the anime doesn't touch the thumbs, (except the remote) it is heavy on style. It never fails to be interesting, even if the episode starts out slow, it will pick up. The only thing that I would like to see more is how Trish fits into things, as she has been in one episode so far. Plot is not exactly deep, (if you are looking for plot, go seek War and Peace) but ultra heavy on action. The box was a nice touch, as it will be nice to have a decently constructed holder for when I receive the third and last in this series. Overall, been very pleased with how they have done the animation and action. It was a nice touch having the same voice actor do Dante's voice in the U.S. dub that also voices the devil hunter in the third and fourth games. All in all, money well spent. Now, if they will be kind of enough to hurry up and release the third, all will be good.

Well done and dark.
Devil May Cry level 2 is creepier and darker than the previous level. With episodes filled with swearing, blood gushing demons,and Dante near to denying his own past. I laughed,got creeped out,and loved every minute of it. My only disappointment is that the art box that came with the dvd was just a pretty box with no inserts or anything else.

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Les Formidables

This Movie Surprised Me By How Good It Was
I must say I was very surprised at how good this Korean crime/cop movie was. I was not sure what to expect when I ordered it as there is only one other review of it on Amazon. It was originally produced in 2006. It's very exciting from the beginning to the end with lots of martial arts style fighting and over the top action. A criminal is arrested and charged with murder which he claims he did not commit. He eats plastic plates while in jail and is taken to the hospital for surgery where he manages to escape. He takes a homicide detective hostage but then the two team up to find out who really did the murder the criminal was originally charged with. Gang members and the police are hot on their trail for the rest of the movie. The acting is good, the plot is different and the cinematography is probably just a tad above average. For the price you really can't go wrong with this DVD. I enjoyed it a lot and give it a definite 4 stars. The Audio is in Korean with the English subtitles...

THE FORMIDABLE
LOVED THIS MOVIE AND HAVE WATCHED IT TWICE ALREADY. THE ACTING IS EXCELLENT. BAD GUY HELPS GOOD GUY CATCH THE OTHER BAD GUY'S.THE COP AND THE MURDERER BECOME BEST FRIENDS AND END UP WATCHING OUT FOR EACH OTHER. PROBLEMS ARISE WITH THE CHIEF OF POLICE WHICH CAUSES MORE ISSUES WITH THE COP WHO IS TRYING TO SOLVE THIS CASE . NOT A FAST PACED MOVIE BUT ONE THAT WORKS MORE ON EMOTION AND JUST HOW FAR ONE MAN WILL GO TO SAVE ANOTHER REGUARDLESS OF THE COST TO HIMSELF. EACH GUY HAD PERSOANL ISSUES WHICH MADE THEM MORE INTERESTING AND ADDED DEPTH TO THE CHARACTER. I JUST LIKED IT! I HOPE YOU DO TOO. WORTH WATCHING. THANKS! THE BAD GUY WAS EXCELLENT!

Fantastic film!
i'll be frank, I rented it from Hollywood video, and I have to say it was the best film I'd rented to date. ^_^
fantastic martial arts, fantastic story line, okay maybe not fantastic story line, it is however a typical action flick, with a grain of salt and no real expectations, this film will entertain as well as surprise you, it is a fantastic film.

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The Bridges of Madison County DELUXE EDITION

A triple triumph for Eastwood with no shots fired
This 1995 film, BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, stars Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, and was also produced and directed by the former. If you're used to seeing Clint in his belligerent Dirty Harry or Man With No Name persona, then you're likely to be enormously surprised by his triple triumph in this sensitive film in which nary a shot is fired or punch thrown.

The Streep character, Francesca Johnson, was an Italian war bride brought back to Iowa in 1945 by the soldier whose heart she captured. Twenty years later, she lives on a farm with her middle-aged husband and teenage son and daughter. Long since before, she's had to give up her career as a teacher because her spouse, an otherwise gentle and considerate man, doesn't approve of a working wife. She lives, without dreams or passion, a life of quiet desperation. Then along comes the Eastwood character, Robert Kincaid, during a period when Francesca is home alone, the rest of the family off to the State Fair in neighboring...

Moralists missing the point:
To those reviews centering on the "immorality" of not only the protagonists in this film, but the author of the novel, and the "Hollywood Establishment", I say this - you're missing the entire point. If "romance", "infidelity", and "lost love" are central themes of this film, then I suggest adding "human fallibility" to the list. Francesca and Robert ARE good people, who like all of us, are fallible. If they were not, then Francesca's decision wouldn't have been so difficult, and heart wrenching. Indeed, if she were truly selfish, and "immoral", she would have left her family immediately, and without hesitation.

Much of human behavior (and morality too) cannot be realistically assessed in black and white terms. Francesca and Robert are neither completely "bad", nor "good". They are decent individuals who happened to meet too late in life, in the wrong place, and thus, must suffer the consequences of these tragic, unfortunate circumstances. It's not Francesca and Robert vs...

"THIS KIND OF CERTAINTY COMES BUT ONCE IN A LIFETIME."
This movie is one of my all-time favorite romances. It begins with adult siblings looking through their deceased Mother's things where they discover a secret. They "find their way" to a letter from their Mother (Francesca played by Meryl Streep) which is the content of this movie (along with 3 journals.) Francesca's words in the letter to her children open the story. "I know it sounds awful but I couldn't wait for you all to leave. You were going to be gone until Friday. Four days--just four days." This is where the story begins, in the past.

"THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY" is about these incredible life-changing four days of Francesca and Robert. The Father and children had left to enter a steer into a fair and Francesca stayed home. Not long after Francesca's family leaves, a photographer who is lost (Robert Kincaid played by Clint Eastwood) drives up to ask for directions to a covered bridge. She tries to tell him but they both get...

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Lucky Star, Vol. 1

need :3
This is by far, one of the best "limited" deals for one of the best anime series, ever. The T-Shirt is XL, and I'm going to wear it to work tomorrow. I expect odd looks, considering I'm a guy hahaha! The screen wipe (chocolate coronet) is just adorable - there's no way I'd have the heart to get it dirty from my screen. The music cd's are good - The opening song is full length, accompanied by another song which is just as enjoyable (also includes off-vocal versions). The second music cd is based off Konata - it's an enjoyable listen. For the dvd, Japanese vocal is preserved (with English subtitles!), and the English voice track...well I don't think I could watch it because I'm used to the Japanese vocals. So yes, the entire package is a definate 5 *'s.

For the anime itself, you'll either love it or hate it. I recommend watching "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi", as this anime makes "several" references to it. Lucky Star also references Japanese life and culture,...

An Anime Fan's "Seinfeld"
Lucky Star is a unique delight in anime. Where most series follow the standard trend of every other show in existence of following a long, strung-out and sometimes convoluted plotline, Lucky Star subscribes to the K.I.S.S. method, or more appropriately, the Seinfeld approach. Essentially, it's an anime about nothing.

Following the lives of four Japanese teenage girls (Yes, they're all 17-ish despite their prepubescent look), Lucky Star keeps things high-paced with short segments strung together in each episode, usually focused around the four girls talking about aspects of their lives, their dreams, their questions and thoughts, or just overall goofing around. It never really follows any sort of singular plotline or progression, save for the movement of the year, but the dialogue and antics of the characters keep you fascinated, and the pacing and timing remains high, making sure that you don't get bored.

The majority of the series' laughs come in the form of...

The popular craze finnaly hits U.S. shores.
When I first laid eyes on Lucky Star, I really had no idea what I was watching. From the obscure yet (amazing!) opening theme, questions will rise to the head very quickly as you try to assume what this series is made of. Of course, as I watched Lucky Star, I grew more and more into it, and so first impressions affected me no longer. Set to the everyday lives of four Highschool girls, Lucky Star is a comedy anime which questions the aspects of everything. Each episode is composed of multiple short scenes (like Peanuts or Garfield) in which they talk about or refer to specific subjects (commonly refering to pop culture), and many times you find that you can relate to what they are talking about, this is why I enjoyed it so much. There are tons of referances to other anime and videogames, and this is why I assume it gained popularity so quickly as it was dubbed the most popular anime of 2007 in Japan.

However, I can foresee that the English version might not appeal to as...

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Dans Paris

Sift through the pretension
DANS PARIS does have a certain air of pretension...that much is certain. It feels at times a bit prose-like and self-conscious, but I urge any viewer to sift through that mixture because you will be rewarded by a genuinely good film, brimming with peculiar intimate character interactions, and a kind of sad humor.

DANS PARIS is essentially an interlaced flashback concerning the degradation of a relationship between Paul (Duris) and Anna (Preiss). Anna has just left Paul who, annihilated by the separation, moves back with his father in Paris. His younger brother Jonathan, a casual student, still lives in his father's apartment and spends most of his time womanizing and fooling around. Honore's film becomes a meditation on how people choose to suffer, how others choose to allow or challenge our model of suffering, the inevitability and incongruity of healing despite our best efforts to wallow, and is none the less a compelling structural exercise.

DANS PARIS, the...

A Likable, But Meandering, French Trifle Not For All Tastes
I'm going to start out by saying that I really liked "Dans Paris" although I'm not particularly sure that it is a cohesive, or even a very good, movie. Louis Garrel is a compelling young actor who has made some interesting choices, and it was his presence here that drew me to the film. However, those who might complain about the plot's ambiguity or the lack of a plot altogether are not off base. A throwback to the French New Wave movement, "Dans Paris" seems more successful as an experience than as a narrative. Although there are many subjects to explore--family disintegration, marital strife, siblings reconnecting as adults, psychosexual politics, depression and suicide--the film ultimately floats along like a breezy entertainment never really examining anything in depth.

When Paul (Romain Duris) separates from his wife, he returns to Paris to live with his father and brother (Garrel). Paul's instability and attempts to harm himself are a major concern as the family has...

intimacy and transference
new wave movies are about relationships and intimacy. dans paris does a wonderful job of showing how the ability to attach as an adult is fostered in our family life as children. the only people these two brothers can really attach to are each other. the older brother was abandoned physiclly by his beloved sister, emotionally by his father, physically and emotionally by his mother and has come to fear abandonment again too much to be able to trust his girlfriend to be faithful and sets her up to fail. the brother is emotionally undeveloped because his abandonment occurred when he was quite young. none of this is spelled out. but the confusion and struggle of this very painful family life and their inabilty to move forward is beautifully developed and the emotions are palpable. i think that fear of losing the people we love is a more freqent obsticle to achieving intimacy than many people realize and the inaility to trust and take the risk of loving is very common. this is a...

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Crossing Jordan: Season 1

The Dark and Light
It took some time for this show to find its footing and decide exactly what it wanted to be. Many expecting it to be very dark like "Profiler" or intricately technical like "C.S.I." gave up on it too soon. The pilot episode offered a lot of background and insight into Jordan Cavanaugh (Jill Hennessey). She was smart and pretty, and terribly messed up, haunted by demons from her childhood. She was also relentless in her pursuit of justice.

Once she left L.A. for Boston, joining the M.E.'s office, she gradually found a home. By the middle of season one, the show knew what it was and many were glad they'd hung around. It became this wonderfully cool show about a small group of people in the medical examiner's office, Jill Hennessy at its center, who had formed a kind of familial bond as they dealt with crimes and their personal problems. In Jordan's case, who was searching for her mother's killer, the two often intertwined.

There was a lot of quirky humor and fun...

A Show That Still Had Staying Power
Crossing Jordan is one of the few series that was ended while it still had stories to tell. The early seasons developed complex characters with complex relationships and the stories kept you engrossed. Sadly, the show seemed to have fallen off its Network's radar in the last two seasons and ended with a disappointing episode. The cast was amazing and their characters deserved a better closing.

One Awesome Television Series!
Wow...this was a long time coming!

This was one show that NBC truly made a mistake with in its abysmal decision not to return Crossing Jordan for a seventh season. Unlike shows that stay on well past their prime, Crossing Jordan was still in full swing and had a myriad of stories left to tell such as who killed Emily (Jordan's Mom), where did Max disappear to and why (Jordan's Dad), what was Dr. Macy's "demon," would Jordan and Woody finally get together and so much more.

Crossing Jordan was an awesome television show on the NBC network. It lasted for six sesons and 116 episodes.
Season one was a ground breaker in that it showed a female lead (Jill Hennessy) who was strong, smart, independent, beautiful, vulnerable yet willing to take risks to find the truth. Jill played the character of Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh with such aplomb, realism and strength that I was hooked after viewing the premiere episode. In fact, I never missed an episode in six years...

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Saludos Amigos / Three Caballeros

Quite a trip
My husband loves the animated finale of "The Three Caballeros" so much he says nothing else here matters, and rates this, ahem, unique Disney collection 5 stars. I, on the other hand, rate it 3. Sure, the surreal stuff is creative, but the live-action material is so lame! And besides, I want a story! The 4 stars above are our compromise. (Our teenage daughter, by the way, sides more with her father.)

So here's my review, a mix of all of our opinions.

SALUDOS AMIGOS

"Saludos Amigos" is a 42-minute South American travelogue. Produced in 1942 with limited wartime resources, it uses live-action scenes to link together four cartoons.

The live-action segments show Walt Disney and a team of Disney artists as they travel to the continent and then gather information and sketch cartoon ideas. Poorly composed, badly faded and politically out of date, the footage has the look of an old home movie, as well as an obviously overdubbed soundtrack. My...

Still EDITED, Not all extras from original DVD release are here.
If you already have the two individual older DVD releases, there is no reason to purchase this new single disc release.

If you don't have the original individual releases, you may still want to get those as the original theatrical trailers included there were NOT put on this new release.

The Three Caballeros (Disney Gold Classic Collection)
Saludos Amigos (Disney Gold Classic Collection)

And YES, THE SAME CENSORSHIP HAPPENS HERE. THEY ARE EDITED.

A Side by side comparison does show some slight improvement in picture sharpness, and the audio has been re-mixed for surround sound, but it is not a full restoration. Obviously this is a great price, and hard to pass up if you do not already own these.

The feature films themselves fall a little short of being classics, they are best viewed...

Creative & Innovative Disney Animation at its best!
Wow, wow, and triple wow. It is not often that I get excited over animation anymore, but these 40+ year old films took my breath away. This DVD set contains "Saludos Amigos" (1943) and its follow-up, "The Three Caballeros" (1945). A team of Disney animators visited Latin America and collected a wealth of film, photos, sketches, paintings, mementoes, and ideas that reflected the culture they soaked up. In "Saludos Amigos," there is plenty of 16mm footage documenting the trip, interspersed with 4 animated segments: "Lake Titicaca" starring Donald Duck. "Pedro," an ADORABLE baby airplane, "El Gaucho Goofy" starring Goofy (and to answer the "burning" question, there is no cigarette visible here), and my VERY favorite, "Aquarela do Brasil" (Watercolor of Brazil"). This finale could easily have been used in "Fantasia." It is a marvel of animation, color, and music. It is absolutely breathtaking. It is inspiring to see what this team was able to create together. Released two years later,...

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