Also, check out the best DVDs I’ve reviewed and my most recent reviews.
The rating scale runs from 1 to 10, with 10 being a great movie (or DVD, or feature, or transfer), one being horrible.
There are two sections for the review. A “capsule” review, and then a more in-depth review. The in-depth review may contain spoilers. You are hereby warned.
Recommendation: If the recommendation says “rent”, the link is to NetFlix.Com; if the recommendation says “purchase”, the link is to Amazon.Com. I use NetFlix because they are the only on-line DVD rental place I’ve used, and they are very good. If you know of another on-line DVD rental site, let me know and I’ll check around on Usenet to see how good they are.
I use Amazon because they pretty much guarantee that the links I make will always work. Amazon also pays me every time you buy something by hitting one of my links; this does not affect my recommendation: I do not recommend that you purchase anything that I haven’t already purchased or plan to purchase imminently. I would have to sell about 20 items to break even in this manner, which doesn’t happen. It makes no sense for me to recommend a purchase when I don’t really mean it.
Talk About it: This links to Usenet discussion messages, people talking about the movie on Usenet. Usenet is the major discussion area on the net. Not only are the best and most wide-ranging discussions there, but the best tools exist for reading Usenet. I find that I can easily handle Usenet discussions that are ten, twenty, or even a hundred times more active than e-mail or web-based discussions. This is because the management tools, such as MT Newswatcher on the Macintosh, make it very easy for me to filter the interesting from the uninteresting.
I also provide three other sources for on-line reviews, just because I like reading other people’s reviews, and I think you will too: Usenet reviews, DVDFile reviews, and IMDB Reviews.
Movie Details: The Internet Movie Database is a wonderful resource for movie information. It includes information about the DVDs, about the cast, about the movie itself, and includes reviews from people on the net, and trivia about the movie: goofs, quotes; and it allows you to update the information if you know something about the movie that isn’t listed.
Cast Listing: A direct link to the cast listing for this movie on the Internet Movie Database.
Last Memo Enabled: DVD has the ability to let you watch a movie partway, take it out, and then start from where you left off. On my Pioneer, this is called “Last Memo”. A large number of DVD discs have disabled this feature, which is a shame, and really detracts from the usefulness of DVD. This is, after all, something that VHS does naturally: if you take a VHS tape out, and then put it back in tomorrow, it will start from where it left off. I find that when I get home from the office and start making dinner, I’m much more likely to pop in a DVD that has Last Memo enabled. To make it easier, I’ve listed all the movies that are both enhanced widescreen and last memo enabled.
Features: DVDs often have features besides the movie itself. The trailer is often included; and commentary about the movie, interviews with the cast, etc. I’ve rated these features 1 to 10, with 1 being practically worthless, 10 being a superior feature.
Format: DVDs can play back in a number of formats. The best is “widescreen anamorphic” which will play back on both widescreen and normal televisions. The second best is “letterbox”, which plays back the full theatrical release of the movie. Finally, there is “pan and scan”, which chops off the sides of the movie so that it ‘fits’ on a normal television. With Pan & Scan you are almost always missing important parts of the movie. If you do not have a widescreen TV when watching letter box and widescreen, you’ll see black bars at the top and bottom of your screen. This is simply because movies are wider than televisions, and in order to show you the full movie, the movie has to be shrunk top to bottom to show the full movie left to right. If the black bars bother you, make sure that DVDs you purchase have both letterbox/widescreen and pan & scan. To make it easier, I’ve listed all the movies that are both enhanced widescreen and last memo enabled.
“Widescreen Anamorphic” has the ability to play a pan & scan version as well for those who prefer (perhaps on smaller televisions) to have the picture fill the screen. However, most discs do not enable this feature. If I notice that this feature of Widescreen Anamorphic is enabled, I’ll mention it. It sounds like a great idea that could save a lot of space on DVDs that can then be used to include other features. (It would be even better if widescreen included the full area, and the pan & scan was then able to pan up and down--and we could set our own matting.)
Some older movies were never made in a wide, panoramic version. To differentiate between these movies and chopped movies, I’ll call them “Academy Format”. A movie listed as Academy Format is the full theatrical release; a movie listed as pan and scan is a chopped movie.
Unskippable Openers: Some movies can have annoying openers that they do not let you skip. Sometimes there can be up to three or more of these that you are forced to watch with every movie. On a DVD, this is silly. I can see having a skippable studio opener, but putting an FBI warning, or worse, an FBI warning, a couple of advertisements, a studio opener, and a manufacturer opener is showing a profound lack of understanding about the nature of digital entertainment.
The Obligatory Anti-DIVX Editorial
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“Joseph wore a tuxedo, tattered and dirty, with his hat in his hand, while Mary wore a torn and stained white dress. Jesus was swaddled in newspaper and slept peacefully in a shopping cart. Singing policemen kept their watch by night. If you wound them up, they sang the melody to Silent Night. The three wise men were there as well. They dropped coins into Joseph’s hat.” |
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