Hartnett

Top Dog
$29.95
"Top Dog" DVD is the "bible" for electronic training of waterfowl and upland retrievers and pointing dogs! It breaks down the training into simple, 15 minute steps and displays a red dot on the screen whenever the electronic simulation is applied to my dog. This takes all the guess work out and makes the training much faster and more humane!!

Training with the electronic collar is definitely the way to go, once your dog has the basics taught in the "Water Dog" DVD. Now, I can control my dog at 100 yards!!

Halloween H20 [VHS]
$9.99
6.8 THE FILM ITSELF
5.0 VISUALS
7.0 SOUND
6.0 PACKAGING
1.5 EXTRAS

What have they done to the Halloween franchise? From the cover alone, when I saw LL Cool J, I rolled my eyes. I know, I get it, you're trying to capitalize on his "fame" at the time and bring more teenagers to the theatres. But, the worst part is he has no impact on the film! His role is completely useless and he couldv'e been played by anyone else.

But back to the film. Obviously, as the title tells, this is 20 years after the the events of Halloween 2. The storyline is a bit shady and kind of clumsy in its execution and how it's put together, but most movie-goers won't notice what's different and what might not add up. But the film itself contains the usual: dumb characters, moments of above-average teenage dialogue (thank the writer here, he went on to create and write Dawson's Creek, which I love, but the dialogue isn't right for the age-group), the killer that never dies and the characters that do the same, and the life lesson at the end.

But the most horrific part of this film is the new mask they gave Michael. What a terrible idea, and whoever made it, okayed it, and allowed it and still didn't understand how horrible it looked should be fired immediately. Why do we see his eyes? Why does the mask fit so freaking tight? Why does it seem to show him smiling at times? And why can we see so much of his skin under his eyes?! You never see his eyes before! Why now?! I laughed in disgust several times when I saw a close up of his face, and that ending... wow.

The series will eventually hit a low(er) point that this (sadly), but for fans of the franchise, it's still something fun to watch from time to time. Nothing that you'll want to watch more than once a year probably, but at least it has Jamie Lee Curtis in it again. And Michael's head coming off? What will happen next...?

5.0 VISUALS
There's little here besides just seeing the characters. Little death scenes and very little blood. But that ending, where Michael's head gets chopped off couldn't have ever looked worse. Embarrassing for such a classic franchise.

7.0 SOUND
They overuse the Halloween theme (you hear it about every 5 minutes) and I even think they did some "remake" work on it at times, which really made me roll my eyes. No use of surround sound and nothing to write home about. Typical horror movie sound.

6.0 PACKAGING
I gave this a 6.0 because I felt bad for this DVD release. The main menu is cheesy, but at least the cover shows us almost absolutely everyone who was in the film.

1.5 EXTRAS
Only 3 extras and they are almost completely useless. The first is "Unmasking the Horror", in which the title has abolsutely nothing to do with what we see. They talk about the soundtrack and the legacy and how the project got started. So why is it called "Unmasking the Horror"? No idea.

Next up is a Creed music video. Now we're talking! Who doesn't love Creed!? Now I can sit up alllllll night and watch this awesome video with one of the worst bands of the 1990's in the desert singing. Er, trying to sing. This is the best extra feature I have ever seen on any film. Legendary. (end sarcasm).

Last is a "trivia game" which asks you the most obvious of Halloween questions. I'm surprised there wasn't a question that says "around what holiday do most of the films take place?", and when you get a question right you see Michael get hit with a fire extinguisher. And when you guess wrong, Josh Hartnett gets stabbed in the leg and lets out a hilarious howl. 10 questions. Fantastic.

IN CLOSING
A passable, mildly amusing film with alot of problems compounded with terrible special features make this a horrific (no pun) DVD set. Obviously the studio takes no care in a once-great property.

4.0/10 "POOR"

Angela Hartnett's Cucina: Three Generations of Italian Family Cooking
$34.95
Angela is a supreme chef and has earned herself the praise of Gordon Ramsey and other elite chefs the world over!

This is great to read some of her personal history and family cooking and to have her explain how to do it with awesome pictures and detailed steps with some possible different ingredients is just great! I love pasta and to see how with a little effort and home made pasta how this is several steps in class above most Italian cookbooks!

Highly recommended for the Italian cook or chef.

Josh Hartnett Black Hawk Down Art Black Wood-Mounted Poster Print - 24" X 36"
$99.99