professional

The Professionals [Blu-ray]
$28.95
The Professionals is one of Hollywood's last great Westerns. It's not the last great one made; Westerns that followed it include The Wild Bunch, Once Upon a Time in the West (non-American) & Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, just to name a few but not all. The cast is loaded: Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Claudia Cardinale, Woody Strode, Jack Palance & Ralph Bellamy. It's almost a who's who listing of actors.

J. W. Grant (Bellamy) wants his kidnapped wife, Maria (Cardinale) rescued. He hires a team of professionals to accomplish this: Bill Dolworth (Lancaster), an explosives expert; Henry Fardan (Marvin), expert in tactics; Hans Ehrengard (Ryan), a horse expert; & Jake Sharp (Strode), an expert with the longbow. All of these come in handy because there's a call for their particular expertise.

They are given 9 days to pull off the rescue. They have to enter the Mexican desert & the fortress stronghold of Capt. Jesus Raza (Palance). Not only will this be difficult, Dolworth & Fardan had fought alongside with Raza earlier in the Mexican Revolution. The film takes place in 1917 which makes it one of the latest Westerns ever done. Let it be suffice to say that not all things are as they seem as this team of crack professionals go after Raza. There are some plot twists & a surprise ending.

The Professionals is an extremely well done film directed by Richard Brooks. Brooks was not on Hollywood's A-list but he was one of their better directors & had some excellent films to his credit. Brooks began his career as a screenwriter then went into directing. In the vast majority of the films he directed he also did the screenplay.

The Professionals was nominated for 3 Academy Awards in 1966: Best Adapted Screenplay (Brooks), Best Color Cinematography (Conrad Hall) & Best Director (Brooks) but didn't take any of them home. The Directors Guild also nominated Brooks for Best Director but failed to capture this award either.

This Special Edition has some bonus features: "The Professionals - A Classic", "Burt Lancaster - A Portrait" & "Memories from The Professionals". These are all entertaining & informative. The audio & video are in excellent condition.

Dr. Katz Professional Therapist - The Complete Series
$129.98
was (semi)burned getting the first two seasons seperately before they released the box and discontunied producing the singles but this is a beautiful package. the show is solid gold, the episodes that were never aired in the states, on the last disc, are amongst the best of all.

The Professional (Spenser)
$26.95
If you skip every section which includes the useless Susan Silverman, you'll still be left with a barely interesting short story. Don't get me wrong. I used to look forward to Spenser like a kid at Christmas, but Mr. Parker has run out of enthusiasm for the character. What a shame.

The Professional [Blu-ray]
$24.95
First of all: I love this movie. It should have received a much better treatment than it has now. The standard DVD was by no means perfect. The Blu-ray is awful. Image contrast has been boosted to ridiculous heights, leaving no detail in any tone slightly lighter than a midtone. So as soon as daylight enters the picture: shadow areas stay and the rest dissolves into a white, bleached out glare...
Sony should be forced to rerelease!