good

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly [Blu-ray]
$29.99
THE MEANING OF SERGIO LEONE'S WORK

Spaghetti Westerns were the first significant movies I watched as a little boy growing up in some East European backwater, back in the late sixties. And Sergio Leone was the Spaghetti king. What could be more subversive in a world aiming at total or totalitarian state-enforced collectivism than watching these rugged individualists, Italian-speaking 'cowboys' answering to American names, relentlessly and usually violently pursuing their own greedy goals while the world around was cracking and collapsing with a so-called 'civil' war raging? Add to that those wide shots of small men under immense, blue, cloudless dessert skies and Clint Eastwood's cigars and the effects of all those years of constant and persistent indoctrination were irreversibly blown away by 3 hours of movie viewing.

It's hard to quantify the role Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood played in the collapse of communism - after all, what followed isn't exactly the happy-go-lucky Wild West - but almost certainly we wouldn't have the Tarantino some of us love and the massive Stephen King's Dark Tower saga might not exist at all - and this is just scratching the surface. Maybe Sergio Leone is not the sole mother of all contemporary creative artistic expressions but he's clearly one of their more prominent godfathers.


THE RESTORATION

These being said, the restoration and actual reconstruction of his work was something that HAD to be done because we can't afford having these masterpieces degrade any further. What came out is certainly not 'perfect' but it's great work for sure and, as a digital product, it can't degrade any more.

The restorers succeeded in giving us, Americans, what Europeans always had - the 'full' movie, not the butchered American version, 15 or 20 minutes shorter, made so to meet the business demands of theater operators. It was hard to find film of an acceptable quality for all the chapters and, at least in one instance, what was found was too damaged to be included in the film but, whenever possible, the lost content was added and the restorers even brought back Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach to do their voices over the Italian-speaking cuts. The picture was cleaned up and the restorers even managed to turn the mono sound track into a 5.1 surround, adding a few sound effects when needed - yes, it's not 100% the original sound track but I'm not complaining.


THE BLU EDITON

This edition is the 2003 restored movie. As I noted above, it gets a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio sound track and it's 2 minutes shy of 3 hours long. For a 1966 movie done on the cheap back then - it cost only a little over $1 million to make it - the restoration quality is above expectations. Not everything is perfect. Sometimes we even get to see the proverbial 'hair' at the bottom of the screen and not a lot of time was invested in creating the 5.1 sound track but what we get is probably better than what I saw as a little boy in the movie theater.

In addition, there is a serious complement of extras. There are two separate commentary soundtracks by Richard Schickel, an Eastwood biographer and by Christopher Frayling, a noted authority when it comes to Sergio Leone. Then, there's the "Leone's West" documentary, discussing the making of the movie, another featurette on Sergio Leone himself, a short on the actual Civil War events that the movie seems to refer to, a very informative short on the restoration process and two extras on Ennio Morricone, the composer responsible for the innovative sound track.

Sadly, the packaging is not what I expected. The disk comes inside one of the cheapest Blu-ray case made so far - the kind that has holes in it to save one or two pennies worth of plastic but... I can live with that.


OVERALL

I am VERY happy with this restoration. I think it's the best we are going to get for many years to come so... enjoy it. I know that I am. It's 5 stars without hesitation.

Alatriste [NTSC/REGION 1 & 4 DVD. Import-Latin America]
$16.95
"Alatriste" is an epic film from Spain dealing with the life and adventures of Captain Diego Alatriste, a soldier during Philip IV's reign.

The movie tries to cover the events set forth in five of Arturo P���rez-Reverte's novels about the Captain in a mere 145 minutes. I've only read two books in the series. Where the film dealt with events in the books I knew, it came across as a painfully abbreviated Cliffs Notes version of the source material. Once it moved into unfamiliar territory, I enjoyed it more.

I think "Alatriste" will be enjoyed most by viewers completely unfamiliar with the books. Taken on its own the film is an entertaining, if slightly confusing, swashbuckler. Although there are plenty of thrilling battle scenes and duels, this isn't a simple action picture; some knowledge of 17th century Spanish history will certainly help the viewer understand the major plot points.

This was the most expensive movie ever produced in Spain, and the money spent on it shows in the final product. The production is first rate, with an excellent cast headed by Viggo Mortensen as Alatriste. The costumes and sets are exceptional, and the cinematography gives the film an atmosphere reminiscent of a fine old painting.

Fans of the books will be disappointed. "Alatriste" would have been improved by devoting the entire film to the events of just the first book. Or, the Spanish producers could have taken a page from the Hollywood play book and given us a series of sequels. There is certainly enough interesting material in the books to sustain several movies.

The Fox International DVD (Regions 1 and 4) has scene selection and features language tracks in either Spanish (Castellano) or Portuguese; subtitles are available in English or Portuguese.

Good Hair
$27.98
I'm disappointed. I thought "Good Hair" would be a little more in depth towards real African American cultural issues such as black class structure based on the texture of our hair, Bantu nose and lips, skin tones, and status based on a "I got Indian Blood in me", post Jim Crow Black Americans. To do this documentary in its chosen format was exploitive in itself of our own people. Why did he not put his wife or girlfriend in the documentary? He put his daughters in the film because as a father, and at their young delicate age, he obviously has control for what they do now but not his wife or girlfriend. I'm still trying to figure out why other than to squeeze a few dollars out of something so irrelevant as how a person wears his or her hair knowing it only further instigate stereotype of our people, in particular, black women. It subliminally agonize the deadly sins of vanity, greed, jealousy, impatience, ignorance, and arrogance. I would like to think that Black people would collectively consider education as the first and foremost goal to attainment of a better life in current endeavors and guiding a course for future success and desires for our descendents. Even though blacks appear to spend a lot on their personal grooming for image effect it has been that way since the glory days of Egypt and Northeast Africa. We have maybe, without proper education of our heritage, forgotten that we set the trends and establish the current fads. We are not victims concerning this issue because we have the right of choice. So what if a black woman wears a weave, use perm cr���me and rollers, or a wig, the most important issue of her presence are the processes of her thoughts and actions as a human being. I'm sure many of us should spend less time in the mirror and focus more on concerning household and community matters but we have been programmed by media images that have the effect of confusing our most critical priorities.

Chris Rock please utilized your celebrity status of influence to something more enlightening if you're going to do a documentary. Hollywood is hard these days and I know its work, and we all need work, but there are a number of worthy topics open to documentation that you could have chosen that can be humorous, entertaining, but most important - informative. Now you have become another entertainer who has sold his soul at the expense of his own. Just because you were able to convince Angela Mayo and a few other celebrity status individuals to be interviewed on film it still doesn't validate your reasoning. I'm sure those who were involved are second guessing being a part of that project now. My challenge to you and any other celebrity who have the means:

DOCUMENTARY THIS

How black crime and criminals affect the local economics of white America. For every black that turns to crime, they hire 1000 white police officers or more, they hire more Judges, Lawyers, Courts, Corrections Employees, Staff and Prison Guards, Construction Builders of Inmate Facilities, Shrinks, Private and Government Security Firms, Parole Officers, Prison labor for corporate farms, not to mention the amounts of money spent on the logistics of such a grand scheme. I could go on and on. We are only 12 percent of America's population which is just enough to keep business going for another hundred years. We have become a product just as we were before the so called emancipation. The black mans ignorance, illegal vice, and envious desires for the white mans material status still puts food on the table for a lot of white Americans. I'm sure if you crunch the numbers you will find out that crime is one of the largest domestic sources of stable employment for whites that no one take stats of. You have never heard of any employees working in these career fields getting laid off, even during the hardest of economic times. The will get rid of a military service personnel on a mass scale, but cops? Never! If you read this review you'll think about it the next time you get a ticket from a cop and have to pay a fine. Every time one of us do something stupid enough to be incarcerated or fined, remember, we just helped that Cop put food on the table and pay for his for his new pick-up truck, harvesting us, liked market produce.

DOCUMENTARY THIS

What happened to those Black Slave Owners of Black Slaves after the civil war in America?



DOCUMENTARY THIS

Why do so many black Americans (mostly males), who mainly populate and dwell in the largest cities in America buy an over priced, four-wheel drive, gas guzzling, off the road-all terrain vehicle that's mainly used in daily city traffic. It's clearly not economically practical. Why?

DOCUMENTARY THIS

Why President Abe Lincoln is questionable as a great American Hero?

DOCUMENTARY THIS

Why, during the Spanish America War a large group of Buffalo Soldiers defected to the Philippines once they got there from their deployment? Why?

DOCUMENTARY THIS

Why out of all the great film that Denzel Washington and Halle Berry starred in they won Academy Award Oscars for their worst portrayals. Denzel playing a corrupt, drug dealing, psychopathic, abusive cop and Halle playing a white man's nasty skank irresponsible vice infected slut whore. When clearly Mr Washington's role in "Glory", and Ms Berry's role as "Dorothy Dandridge", very much warranted such honors? Why?

DOCUMENTARY THIS

Who was the Great King Negus?


These are some issues worthy of Documentary especially if it's based on blacks as a people and target audience collectively as a group. It could also turnout to be a great and very profitable movie. If not, at lease it would be based on something factual, significant, and informative.

When Cris rock wrote and published "Rock This" it showed me he was extremely witty and intelligent with potential to do great things within the American media forum, but for now, well, don't waste your money on this crap.

Oh Yeah! For those Blacks claiming "Indian Blood" to explain a reason for the quality of their hair and skin tones you need to know the American Indians hated our guts just like they do today and want nothing to do with us. Very few of them mixed. The DNA facts says the American Indian has your African blood in him. Little do Americans know that there are black Africans with every texture of hair, every shade of skin, and every color of eyes, even certain shades of blue, natural and all real. I'm Ethiopian. I have been to Africa and seen it myself. In fact, if I could swap out the blacks of Addis Abba with the Blacks of Atlanta everyone would pretty much look the same, except for the clothing, and there are no American Indians in Ethiopia!

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
$19.98
I love this so much more than Snoopy the Musical and more than the Broadway version. The last song in Snoopy the Musical Just One Person always makes me sad but in this special the last song Happiness always makes me happy. I love the songs but I only wish I could find the music for the TV special and not the Broadway version. My favorite is the Home on the Range song when everyone is yelling at each other it's so funny to watch. I think Robert Towers does a great Snoopy voice. Great special and I really enjoy it. I have it on video but it's not a good picture. I can't wait to get in on DVD 1/26/10.