Best DVD Box Sets

I’ve always loved David Mamet films because of his brisk realistic dialogue and his preoccupation with the male code and its clash with civilization. That theme is well served in The Unit, even better than films, because he has the long-range TV landscape to develop his characters, Delta Force anti-terrorist unit who, for hardly any pay, risk their lives in international missions while their wives, living in a nondescript military base, pinch pennies and deal with the daily dramas of having husbands who could die in the blink of an eye. Avoiding sentimentality, piety, and jingoism, The Unit has an appropriately cynical look at power and the use of trickery to succeed against one’s enemies and even one’s bureacratic bosses. In this sense, The Unit resembles the show 24 but unlike 24, which is often over the top, The Unit employs psychological realism. Perhaps better than any TV show right now, The Unit specializes in riveting plot lines, especially employing the reversal, where the plot goes one way and then turns the tables in a way that never seems forced or arbitrary. So far the second season has proved as the good as the first. If you haven’t seen The Unit, the DVD first series season is a must.

If you like your violence to be action-coated with a veneer of dark humor to help it go down smoothly, then pick up a six pack and a copy of “Smokin’ Aces.” Maybe you oughta make that two six-packs, since you’ll probably feel compelled to watch the film a second time anyway. Then again, maybe the beer is a bad idea, since it may inhibit your ability to comprehend the storyline. Hell, I was sober as a judge, and I found myself hitting rewind at least four times, trying to figure out who was killing whom, and why they were doing it. “Smokin’ Aces” pulls its audience in so many directions simultaneously that you’ll feel as stretched as Gumby at a tractor pull.
The plot concerns itself with Buddy “Aces” Israel, a Vegas magician who gets intimately involved with the mob, but somehow turns state’s witness. While he is holed up in a penthouse suite, the `organization’ places a highly publicized and highly valuable contract on his head (or more accurately, his heart – the mob boss wants his second most valuable organ removed). As a result, every psychotic, money-hungry lunatic rushes to compete for the prize. While the premise suggests that a sense of humor is essential to the storyline, the plot is actually much more gruesome than I had expected. More than once, I couldn’t decide to laugh or wince as the blood sprayed abundantly. Between the flying bullets, plot twists pile up as fast as the body count.
As “Aces” Israel, Jeremy Piven manages some of the rawest, reddest eyes I have ever seen outside of a medical marijuana center. Ben Affleck and Andy Garcia provide star power, but major props must go to singer-turned-actress Alicia Keys. As if being mentioned as a lust object in a Bob Dylan song weren’t enough in 2006, she also manages to own this movie every time her bewigged character appears onscreen.
While many movies combine plot twists and blood, few of them resemble the crimson-tainted pretzel of “Smokin’ Aces.” Perhaps if you cross “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead” with “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels,” you’ll get some idea of what to expect – lots of dead bodies (more than either of the above, and probably more than both combined), an array of insane characters, a great cast, and a monumentally confusing plot. To add to the confusion, the DVD offers alternate endings and plenty of out-takes – enough to keep you busy while waiting for the beer buzz to wear off.

Some DVDs will not play episodes. I checked the DVD for scratches and/or damage, there was none. If I use the “play all” option it skips over episodes. If I pick the individual option it boots me back to the main menu. I only made it to the second disk in the series, but will check the rest. I noticed this was an issue for other people, but I thought they resolved the problem. Guess I was wrong!

Update: I only made it through the first season. Disk #2 won’t play the forth episode. Disk #3 skips during episodes. Disk #4 skips and will not play the last two episodes. The final DVD in the first season will not play at all. I gave up after so many issues with just the first season and send the box set back to Amazon. I’m going to wait until they re-release to purchase again.

I knew this TV show was doomed when they started overemphasizing the laughable physics character. I’m told that this show was inspired by Nobel laureate Richard Feynman and if so, he would be rolling over in his grave at the New Age sideline that’s spewed by “Larry”. Also, it seems like the math aspect of the show has been watered down to glitzy little graphics with little or no substance nor explanation.
The original characters from Season One were much, much better and I wish the show could be resurrected in some form with a real physicist character who would do Feynman justice (I know they switched the main character to math vs physics but again, Feynman was direct and a real physicist). Why not bring back the mechanical engineer from a few shows past? That was a character that could have had broad appeal.
Also, on the DVD’s, why not include in the special features some in depth discussions of the math? The folks who aren’t interested could just avoid this but in all the DVD’s, and I do have them all, there’s very little decent extras. Keith Devlin could easily add a bit from his great book on Numb3rs, available at Amazon–plug intended, and go into even more detail.
It just seems that everything must be dumbed down while a good portion of the public would love to be treated as adults and would appreciate a bit of content with their entertainment. Maybe it’s possible for fans to pull a “Star Trek” campaign–IF the producers will listen a little more to Devlin and a lot less to the entertainment/TV folks.

So many people these days want to do movie comparisons with just about every new title that’s released…here is another one getting that same treatment. These are the movies I have seen this one compared to: “Alien,” “Solaris,” “Event Horizon,” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.” This flagrant need to compare movies is largely due, in my opinion, to Hollywood’s decade long quandary with not being able to come up with much new material…everything has already been done…and everyone has been conditioned to not expect anything new from that corner of the planet. Well, I’m not buyin’ it! Books pour out of author’s imaginations and onto the shelves of our local bookstores on a daily basis, and they are ALL different from the next. If book writers can do it, then I’m sure movie writers can do it as well. And this movie is no exception. It has plenty of newness to it. As a matter of fact, once you get through the creepy and atmospheric body of “Pandorum,” which takes place on a spaceship meant to transport everything needed to start anew on another planet much like Earth, and finally reach the climactic ending, the breath of fresh air is resultant of a movie that never let on where it was going, reveals a story that has never been told (even remotely), and leaves the watcher with good feelings in their hearts…feelings of hope and reverie. The acting is superb by all in attendance, although, I believe Ben Foster should have gotten top billing, not Dennis Quaid. The vast majority of the time spent here is centered around Ben’s character, whereas, Dennis’ character doesn’t do much more than try to stay connected with him from another part of the ship. All in all, “Pandorum” delivered on all eight cylinders. It had suspense, tension, depth, a well-thought-out plot, exceptional acting, production, and direction, creepiness, absorption, and reward. If you like the sci-fi/horror type thing, DON’T MISS IT!!!!!

I have been a fan since episode one, and have religiously followed it ever since, never missing an episode. The show seems to get better with every season, although I must say, that while season 4 had some of the strongest episodes, there were also few disappointing episodes (I.e. The entire Derek stalking Peyton storyline, especially the horrendous Prom episode. Soooo cheesy) but I really loved the way the season ended, and eagerly awaited the premiere of season 5.

Season 5 did not disappoint. I was so relieved that they didn’t set the show during the college years, and make it so that all of the characters somehow went to the exact same college (in example, 90210) and instead chose to set it to four years later, while giving you flashbacks of things that happened in their college years.

And best of all, this season introduces you to extremely talented singer Kate Voegele.

All in all, this is a great season, and I can’t wait till the DVDs are released!

I love this TV show & I am really not happy with ABC for cancelling it. I understand that it was b/c it lost ratings in the 2nd season but that is b/c ABC put it up against some more successful shows. I think that was a bad move- yes it had done well in its 1st season & yes its cast was ’seasoned’ but the show itself was still in its infancy & not ready to stand on its own. I think it had a couple more seasons left but Samantha…I will miss you, and I hope others feel the same.

I gave it 4 stars (although that is based on my opinion) Some general information: 3 discs, 17 episodes as well as 3 bonus episodes of hilarious, romantic, somewhat quirky Sam & friends. The set also features bloopers, deleted scenes and other fun filled facts about the series. If you enjoyed season one of this series I would definitely recommend season two.

I rented this movie, just as a thing to do, hanging out with some friends. It was so bad that we stopped half way through, shocked at how bad it was (guess we should have read reviews).

Run away, do not walk from watching it in case it catches you.

This bad of a movie from the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Mind and writers of Superbad?? … the movie should have been great, how did it go sooooo wrong?

I’ve seen people saying it is a parody against superheros, to try to redeem it I suppose. No. This movie is a director and writers nightmare they can’t wake up from, everything they try to do to fix it falls flat, all their skill and experience fails them. The crazy visual effects do nothing because they have no believable story to stand on. The actors, regardless of what they’ve done in past movies (the bad guy was GREAT in Inglorious Bastards, Seth Rogen has been great in other movies), all drown together in this unbelievable and just terrible plot and dialog. Horrible.

It get worse… the next day, after I had already stopped the movie once because it was so bad, I turned it back on and watched the 2nd half (I couldn’t help myself, it was like being fixated on a bad car wreck, I had to look)…. unfortunately the director, writers, and cast outdid themselves, the 2nd half was worse than the 1st half. I curse the masochistic part of myself that hit play to watch the 2nd half.

I repeat…. run away, do not watch this movie.

Let me start this review off with a rant HBO have got to be smoking thier socks by not commiting to the deadwood story until the story was told.

Deadwood has got to be easliy the best TV series of the past 10 years and concidering that it has gone up agianst shows like Californication, Entourage, House etc that is saying a lot.

Set against the backdrop of the mining town “Deadwood”. The story pulls no punches and in no way seeks to glorify the west instead paints a rather bleak though acurate picture of what life must have been for settlers in frontier towns. The cast do a great job of getting into their characters minds but none as good as Ian Mcshane who puts in one stelar performance after another. Deadwood is a definate must see.

When Kelsey Grammer first introduced himself to Sam Malone as psychiatrist Frasier Crane on “Cheers” back in 1984, who would have believed that this television character would tie James Arness’ Matt Dillon at twenty years of playing the same TV character? “Frasier” could hardly be called a sequel to “Cheers”, though, in spite of guest appearances by alumni of that show that appeared pretty regularly in the early years. Frasier’s new job on a radio show combined with his neurotic family and friends were a perfect setting for Frasier’s trademark sarcasm and biting wit. The show seemed to lose a little steam around the time that Niles’ pining away for Daphne actually became a relationship at the end of season seven through the middle of season eight, but the show could have perhaps overcome that had it not been for the tragic death of David Angell on September 11, 2001. Angell was the mastermind behind some of the funnier episodes of “Cheers”, the creator of the series “Wings”, and he was the creative force behind “Frasier”. It just seemed like the show ran out of steam for a couple of seasons after Angell’s death, but then came roaring back in its eleventh and final season. That’s not to say that seasons nine and ten were bad seasons by network TV standards, they just weren’t up to my expectation levels considering how funny and creative the show had been over past years. “Seinfeld” and “Friends” got more press and had a bigger fan base during the 90’s, but Frasier consistently delivered the laughs over the years with a refined and elegant style of humor.

Finally I also have to say that I personally loved the character of Eddie from the moment he was introduced on the show after it was decided Martin, Frasier’s dad, would be moving in with him. Frasier and Martin are having words over Eddie’s presence because Frasier claims “Eddie stares at me”. Expecting Eddie to be some older male acquaintance, in the next scene I was quite surprised to see Frasier being stared at by Eddie – Martin’s Jack Russell terrier. The little dog had a personality of his own and just wasn’t window dressing in the series, having a major impact in more than a few episodes and getting more fan mail than any other character on the show. I don’t think anyone could call “Frasier” groundbreaking, but I think its humor will stand the test of time and it did manage to deliver the laughs and the heart creatively and intelligently for eleven seasons, which is a pretty big accomplishment.