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I've read some of the bad reviews, and they seem focused on a few things: 1) Scary scenes, 2) Nudity, 3) Lack of romance. Well, my three year old is super brave so I do agree that a lot of sensitive littles may have an issue with the movie, but it's not really an issue in our household. Nudity? Well, that's kind of laughable as it's an animated movie. I guess some people would rather hear fart humor and characters calling each other jackass ("Shrek"), and if that's you then skip this one, but it's really just two quick scenes and not in a scandalous way. And about that lack of romance... one of the reasons I love this movie for my daughter is the lack of romance for the main character. In fact, the whole plot is about teenager Merida trying to change her "fate" which is to get married before she's ready. She passionately pleads during one speech to the parents of her suitors to let their children decide when they are ready for marriage and to choose their own spouses. This is beyond refreshing after decades of Disney princess schlock where the all too young princess gets into a scrape and must be rescued by a man and then lives "happily ever after". Also, I found the romantic sparks between Merida's parents to be pretty sweet.

If you're raising an independent daughter you want to think for herself and not think girls are meant to be saved by boyfriends, don't skip this movie. (If she's sensitive and scares easily, wait until she's at least school age, though.)

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Pixar Animation Studios has always been known for their unique approach to filmmaking. They have always put the story first and foremost, something that so many other studios seem to take for granted. They also know the rest of the ingredients to add to make their films stand out from the rest: Great characters, lots of heart, and a goodly quantity of humor.

While not continuing the 21st century tradition of turning the fairy-tale on its head, as in the case of "Shrek", "Brave", feels like a rediscovered story by Grimm's with an unmistakably Pixarian flavor. Legends and myths abound in Scots folklore, and the writers at Pixar didn't have far to go in order to come up with their own story, one that is at once relevant, quite original, and yet entirely congruous with one's expectations of the perfect fairy-tale. As fresh and surprising as any of the studio's previous successes, I enjoyed it immensely, and could watch it many times over without growing tired of it. It's hard to find a real family film that everyone can enjoy together, but this one comes pretty to close to that ideal.

In the ultimate cautionary tale of being careful what you wish for, the film, set in 10th century Scotland, concerns Princess Merida, a feisty, strong-willed, adventure-seeking lass, skilled with both a sword and a bow and arrow, who would rather practice archery and ride through the woods with her horse, Angus, than follow the path desired for her by her parents; or more specifically, her mother. Determined to avoid her fate, she runs away, and manages to find a way to alter her destiny. To make a long story short, this ill-chosen wish sets off a chain of events that threaten to destroy everything Merida holds dear and the entire kingdom of DunBroch along with it.

This fresh take on a typical princess character pleasantly surprised me, as well as the fact that the emotional core of the film, as well as most of the plot, stems not from a romantic relationship between prince and princess, but from the mother/daughter relationship between Merida and Queen Elinor. Anyone who is a daughter like I am will easily relate to how complicated the bond can be between a mother and her child, and this film portrays that unique bond beautifully. Without giving too much away, it is their love for each other and their clashing of personalities that ultimately moves the entire film forward, and the changes they both experience throughout the course of the film give them both a better understanding of each other, and emphasize the importance of empathy, bravery, courage, family, and love.

Not content with just being an entertaining theatrical experience, the film goes into a level of moral and emotional depth that even fans of Pixar may be unfamiliar with. It takes a very special film to bring me to tears, and I was moved quite often. Not to say that "Brave" is strictly a tear-jerker, because it is not. I'd estimate that there is more action, adventure, and humor than in any other Pixar movie to date.

There is no doubt that "Brave" is one of Pixar's most beautifully animated films. The amount of detail is simply brilliant, and computer technology being what it is today, there are times when the visuals on screen almost rival the real world. I've never been to Scotland, but the richness and beauty of the country expressed in the film makes me feel as if I had. The landscapes are simply breathtaking, and so photo-realistic you might feel as if you've just fallen into the wilds of the Highlands; I'm sure that more than one viewing would be needed to absorb it all. The rendering on the hair and fabric is especially lifelike, and certain scenes involving non-human characters might make you do a double-take, they appear so true-to-life!

Composer Patrick Doyle's score is appropriately Scottish in flavor, combining the expected Gaelic melodies (jigs, reels, and such like), with more modern, atmospheric, incidental scoring. Sprightly where it needs to be and brooding where it doesn't, it perfectly enhances the movie to the point that it feels as organic as the moss on the trees. The gentle lullaby, "A Mhaighdean Bhan Uasal", sung by Emma Thompson, is one of the stand-out pieces, and serves as the kind of musical representation of the love between Merida and Elinor. I also quite enjoyed "Song of Mor'du", a sort of Scotch drinking song, heard mainly in the background, but reiterated often throughout the rest of the score. There are also three other songs: "Touch The Sky" and "Into The Open Air", performed by Scots songstress Julie Fowlis, and "Learn Me Right", sung by Birdy, with Mumford and Sons, which, while not written by Doyle, fit expertly into their places in the story and aptly enhance the film.

Now, a good animated character needs a good voice to bring them to life, and the entire cast is all very well-chosen and very well-acted. Comprised mainly of Scottish and English actors, including Billy Connolly as King Fergus, Emma Thompson as Queen Elinor, Robbie Coltrane as Lord Dingwall, Julie Walters as the Witch, and the incomparable Kelly Macdonald as Merida herself, it would be hard to find another group of people so perfect in their roles. Macdonald is wonderful as the flame-haired heroine, and Thompson simply shines as the equally obstinate but caring mother. Billy Connolly is a great counterpoint to her more level-headed and dutiful Queen, but gets far less screen time than either of the two female protagonists.

To sum it all up, "Brave" is a beautiful, touching, exciting, and refreshingly original film, one that is entertaining on so many levels and can stand proudly alongside any of Pixar's previous masterpieces. I would rank it as one of my favorite (if not my favorite) Pixar film, and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

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I don't enjoy every box office hit animated movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed Brave. The ending theme may be about bravery, but the story is rich in family relationship and in choosing who you are, who you want to be and how you treat others. It's a great movie to take your kids to see with you.

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I like Pixar films. I like those lovely and likable characters this animation studio continues to create Woody and Buzz, Sulley and Mike, Lightning McQueen and Remy the gourmet mouse chef. I also like Merida, the heroine of Pixar's new film "Brave." (She is the first female protagonist of the company's films.) And I tried to like the film itself, which is certainly entertaining, but fails to offer a story that this brave and independent heroine really needs. In short, Merida deserves a better story.

The story begins promisingly. Merida is a princess of a Scottish clan, with formidable skills with a bow and arrow. Being dissatisfied with a marriage arranged by her parents, she obtains a magic spell from a witch living in the woods so that she can thwart the marriage plan. As you expect, Merida's conduct results in a terrible disaster that she must somehow fix on her own.

The best part of the film is its visuals, especially those of Merida and her hair. Voice acting is also wonderful. Kelly Macdonald captures the spirit of strong-mined Princess Merida. Another good point is that the film sometimes seems having fun with genre conventions.. Witches are often depicted in a negative light, but in "Brave" the Witch (voice by Julie Walters) may be strange, but definitely not evil.

But the weak storyline needs improvement. That Merida looks often selfish didn't bother me. We know she will change, and she actually does, but the point is how she changes. "Brave" does not give the heroine a real challenge. A big bad bear is not good enough. A considerable portion of the film's second half is spent on silly slapstick involving her young brothers. Curiously Merida, a skilled archer, is not given enough chance to show what she can do.

"Brave" is better than last years' disappointment "Cars 2," but the film, despite its interesting heroine, is still a letdown.

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I went into this movie with very high expectations, because I am a huge Pixar fan. From the trailers, it appeared to be about Merida and possibly other clan members, on the hunt to slay an evil beast and save their people. The movie started out great, with the competition, a lot of laughs, introducing the characters, and an all around great time. Still, I was waiting for those glorious bow and arrow scenes that the trailers and posters had constantly teased. I was waiting for Merida to ride around on her horse and go into battle. Essentially, due to the trailers, I was expecting a Mulan sort of movie.

When we get to the part of the movie where Merida meets the witch and things start ramping up, I was thinking, "oh great this is going to get really fun." Still, I saw no sign of that happening. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the mother and daughter scenes and thought they were touching. Once the mother was a bear, it was endearing, cute, and playful to watch the bear and Merida together.

Then, suddenly the movie seemed to end, and still there was no battle, no rush of adrenaline on the scale that I had expected, and nothing to make me cheer out loud for the protagonists. Basically, I didn't have the fun rush of previous Pixar movies that I had come to expect. Having said that, I still give the movie 4 out of 5 stars, because it looked gorgeous, the voice acting was top notch, and the story did touch my heart.

To sum it all up, if you watch Brave for combat, whether it's single person or on a grander scale, it won't live up to what you are expecting. However if you go into it with the mindset that it's going to be a princess fairy tale and a bonding movie, you will relate to it and love it.

(This is my first ever movie review on Amazon, so let me know what you think. :) )

Reviews of I Am Legend (Ultimate Collector's Edition) (2008)

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"I Am Legend" is not a film that sticks closely to it's source material. While that is it's biggest flaw, it is also where it shines. If you ha told me two years ago that I'd get misty-eyed watching Will Smith sing "Three Little Birds" in a big budget motion picture I'd have laughed myself silly, but this adaptation of Richard Mathson's untouchable novel that -while itself being a vampire storyinspired the entire zombie film genre as we know it takes the story we all know whether we've read the book or not and turns it into an exceptionally personal affair for all of us. One man. One dog. A familiar metropolis deserted by day, but crawling with death by nightfall. This is our setting and it's one that never gets old for me.

The plague that wipes out Robert Neville's world is never fully explained, simply inferred to be the result of some sort of failed cure for cancer. Gone from the novel and the original Vincent Price classic, The Last Man on Earth, is the long struggle of Neville to save his ill daughter, his wife's tranformation, and the shocking actions of the US government to contain the plague. What it left is simply one man, alone trying to maintain his sanity and hopelessly searching for a cure to a disease that has already wiped humanity off the face of the earth and left the "survivors" as rabid vampiric horrors. It's sad, it's pathetic, and it's perfectly human. Will Smith has a penchant for picking terrible, schmaltzy films to star in, but no one can deny his talent and charisma as a leading man. Naturally, this is a film he must carry single-handedly and he does an awesome job of it; he's dramatic, he's relateable, and at times, he is funny. The humor is that of the dark and inappropriate kind, but in a world like his, that is all there is left.

The vampires/zombies/infected in this are all CG and more than a bit reminiscent of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. I'm not a fan of these kind of effects when practical would have been more effective and was acutely aware of the fact that I watching computer-generated monsters, but they worked nonetheless. The infected prove to be terrifying foes for Neville to face, combining suprising cunning, inhuman strength, and impossible agility (hence the CG). Their only weakness is that sunlight kills them almost instantly. Neville plays a game of cat-and-mouse with them, gathering supplies, researching cure, and searching for survivors by day while making sure to get back to his fortified apartment before nightfall when the creatures come out to hunt for his hiding place. More than a few shades of 28 Days Later are present in this film, which is funny considering the book and it's film offspring are largely what provided the elements of that film. So I guess the genre has officially come full circle now.

Ultimately, it's the personal touches that make "I Am Legend" such a treat. Bob Marley provides both the soundtrack to Robert Neville's day and the inspiration for his work, which is both ironic and uplifting at times. This may sound strange for a horror flick, but if you are a fan of Marley (himself a Legend) it makes all the sense in the world as you watch. Watching Neville attempt to interact with mannequins he's set up as he returns the movies he rents (in alphabetical order, one at a time) and seeing him snap when one of the figures is moved is both amusing and, at times, intensely disturbing. When relief finally comes, Neville finds he has lost the ability to interact with other humans at all and is relegated to performing lines from "Shrek", which is playing on his television at the time. The ending is a complete 180 from the book which is disappointing, but not as corny as it could have been. The novel I Am Legend has one of the most brilliant and darkly ironic endings ever put on paper, but director Francis Lawrence didn't ruin it by go for the happy ending either. The result is a compromise between the pitch blackness of the book and the cloying cheese that many Will Smith fans love. It turns out a bittersweet and hopeful conclsion that should satisfy both while not thrilling either. But I left the theater with "Redemption Song" still ringing in my ears and a satisfied feeling. If only every movie could do that for me.

"I Am Legend" fails to adapt the book of the same name to the big screen, but succeeds in so many other ways. I can't give it a perfect score, but I will give it a very hearty recommendation to fans of Will Smith, zombies, vampires, and Bob Marley. Enjoy.

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I Am Legend can't get a fair shake. This Will Smith-led production is the third attempt Hollywood has made to adapt the brilliant novel. None of the adaptions have truly done the novel justice (which is a shame), but this version has come the closest.

Here we have a brilliant beginning; footage of a scientist (played beautifully by Emma Thompson) saying humbly that she's discovered a way to cure cancer. Fast forward a few years, and New York is utterly devoid of human life, save for Robert Neville (Will Smith). As the first half of the film progresses, we learn about his meager living, spending the day harvesting and trying to discover a cure, even now, while spending the night huddled in his protected home as creatures prowl.

His only companion, a wonderful dog named Sam, protects Neville as Neville protects him. They have a friendship based on loneliness and the human need for someone or something to hold onto. Sam is Neville's only connection to the past and the only way to represent what little humanity is left, either in the world or Neville himself. This period in the movie is pitch perfect, puncuated by one or two terrifying sequences that instill genuine horror.

Unfortunately, the last half of the film deteriorates into an action movie that completely changes the meaning of the words "I Am Legend." Don't get me wrong, it's mostly done really well. Constantine director Francis Lawrence has a good handle on the action and delivers some good scenes. But, it becomes muddled and veers off completely from the novel. My biggest complaint, though, is the use of CGI. Instead of using real flesh and blood actors, all of the creatures are created with CG and they look incredibly fake when lined up next to real people. In the beginning, it's not a problem but as you see more of them (and you will) it's glaringly obvious. And annoying.

All of this I was expecting going in, though. Considering that the film was co-written by Akiva Goldsman who also wrote I, Robot, I knew this version would stray from the source material just as I, Robot did. As a movie, it's genuinely thrilling and creates the perfect balance of tension and action through most of its entirety. And, surprisingly, Will Smith shows that he's a really good actor as he has to not only tackle many conflicting emotions during the two hour run time but he also has to do so without having much of anyone to react to. Spending a good hour or so without another single actor for Will Smith to work with was a gamble and it paid off.

Your enjoyment of the film is entirely based on what you bring to the table. If you're coming to this film expecting to see the book come to life you'll be sorely disappointed. However, if you're looking for a good action movie that actually has a good story and a human aspect, you'll be hard-pressed to find one as thrilling recently.

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This third incarnation of Richard Matheson's masterpiece is superior to its predecessors in every way, but in spite of that achievement the film is still lacking and comes across as a disappointment in too many ways.

I can't bear to rehash the plot as nearly everyone knows this story by now, and if you are one of the few unfamiliar with this story, then please read Amazon's well-written synopsis or Trashcanman's excellent review in the Spotlight review section. I just plan to hit what I enjoyed about this film and what was so disappointing.

The Hits:

(1) Another top-notch, winning performance by the ever reliable and likable Will Smith.

(2) Outstanding set designs combined with CGI effects of a desolate and abandoned New York City make this film seem more important than it is.

(3) Best adaptation of Matheson's highly influential novel (even if it isn't the most faithful to the story in a literal sense --it captures the spirit of his work extremely well).

The Misses:

(1) The most glaring problem with this film, in my view, is the CGI effects for the vampire-like survivors of the plague. They are too cartoonish for me and appear far too much like video game villains. A good example of this for me is the early scene where Smith's character enters a building to get his dog and finds some zombies hiding in a corner. They are real people, not CGI, and they are frightening; however, later, when he's attacked by CGI zombies, it is unintentionally humorous as they appear like Gollum from LOTR on acid. The CGI effects are either not believable or just too over-the-top, thus, the scenes with them lose their punch.

(2) Uneven pacing of the story is a problem here. The opening segments give the impression that we are going to see a masterpiece here, but the second half of the film never matches the first half and it feels very rushed. It has that "hey, guys, we just ran out of money, so we have to wrap up this film up this week" feel to it. In a film with a deliberate and nearly dignified opening to fall into a shoddy rushed finale severely hurts this film and leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.

The film is still solid entertainment in spite of its obvious and significant flaws. It is probably one I will even buy when it becomes available on DVD later, but it is rather disappointing for a film that seemed to have so much going for it. Its box office receipts may reinforce that perception as it set opening weekend records with a take of about $77 million, but by its third weekend it only grossed about $15 million and that is a severe drop off. For a film that reportedly cost $150 to make it has grossed a disappointing $228 after a month at the box-office. That doesn't even qualify it has a hit with a mere $78 million dollar profit at this point. I do think it will be a hit after it's been released world-wide.

BTW: Some may ask, "What is a hit by today's standards?" That's a good question with really no one set answer, however, Hollywood traditionally likes to see a film generate double what it cost to make in order to classify a film as a hit. This film with a cost of $150 million to make is expected to earn $300 million to be considered a hit, but certain stars, like Will Smith, are expected to bring in better than double the cost of the film (hence, why this may end up being considered a "disappointment" at the box-office even if it hits the magic $300M mark).

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Richard Matheson's book has a 'hook' that has never been exploited in any adaptaptation (although the Vincent Price version is the closest) and that is the variation on the 'One-Eyed Man in the country of the blind...'

The Vampires have taken over there is no cure

Accept it they have

And that's the point. When you are the only odd one in a world that has been turned topsy turvey night is day and day is night then you are the monster and the monsters are normal. Civilization continues in the hours of darkness, and mankind somehow adapts. It is perfectly logical that they would try to destroy the creature that's killing them while they sleep, and that they would fear him. Neville's final words in the book "I am anaethema I am legend." sums it all up. When mutation is normality the normal man is a monster to be feared and destroyed.

Someday, some screewriter and director will figure this out and tell Matheson's story.

This isn't it.

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Richard Matheson's novel "I Am Legend" has been made into at least three motion pictures -"The Last Man on Earth" (Vincent Price), "The Omega Man" (Charlton Heston), and "I Am Legend" (Will Smith) -and has served as inspiration for dozens of others. The story combines science fiction and horror in a bleak, pessimistic view of the future of mankind.

In the latest version, "I Am Legend," Smith stars as Robert Neville, a scientist who was unable to halt the spread of an incurable, man-made virus. Immune to the fatal virus, Neville is the sole human survivor in what remains of New York City and possibly the world. His only companion is his dog, Samantha. But mutant plague victims -the Infected -lurk in the darkness, watching Neville's every move and waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Day to day, Neville is driven by a single mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus. To do so, he must use his own immune blood.

"I Am Legend" is by far the most ambitious of the three screen adaptations of Matheson's novel. The opening scenes, showing a deserted Times Square overgrown with vegetation, are spectacular, and Smith manages to keep the story flowing in the early scenes even though he's the only person we see. Flashbacks illustrate the stages leading up to the present near-obliteration of humanity and are elaborately staged by director Francis Lawrence. The film's third act resorts to a fairly routine formula of the hero versus the monsters but, overall, "I Am Legend" is an impressive effort.

The "I Am Legend Ultimate Collector's Edition" is just the thing for sci-fi and Will Smith fans. The three-disc box set contains two versions of the movie, one with a controversial ending; a digital copy of the film; four animated comics; 12 never-before-seen deleted scenes along with filmmaker's commentary; a 44-page concept sketch book; a lucite commemorative piece featuring images from the movie; and hours of featurettes covering filming on the aircraft carrier Intrepid, canine training, making New York City look deserted, assistance provided by the U.S. Military, and the integration of CGI images with live action footage.

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QUALITY: Unsurprisingly, the video quality is stunning. Little else needs to be said about the transfer. It's flawless.

EXTRAS: There are a TON of extras!

If you like the behind-the-scenes process of filmmaking, the extras here are about as extensive as I've seen before. Not only do the shorts give a background of life on Pixar's campus (Campus Life), but plenty of dedication to each aspect of making the film. Of course, there's also some deleted scenes.

What's nice about the scenes is that director Dan Scalon talks you through the scene in detail and why it was cut. They are of course unfinished, but still interesting to see what could have been part of the movie.

If I have one complaint, it's the layout of the bonus features menu. Despite the features being on a blu-ray disc, the menu does not operate like a blu-ray menu. Typically, you're able to operate within the menu while the movie (or features) are playing on screen. Instead, you need to return to the menu screen to select the next option. It's a small caveat, but there we go.

SPOILERS BELOW. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM.

If you don't care about the end being discussed, then by all means read on...

My wife and I saw Monsters University and both loved it. Many of the Top Critics on Rotten Tomatoes however, seemed to miss the point of the film entirely.

"This is a safe, predictable, edge-free, nearly bland effort from a studio that rarely hedges its bets." Richard Roeper

"[It] conforms to [Pixar's] apparent drift toward the average, with toy sales taking priority over originality." Liam Lacey

"Monsters University is cute, and funny, and the animation, though not exactly inspired, is certainly colorful." Steven Rae

"Mostly memorable for being fine but forgettable." Betsy Sharkey

Since 1995, Pixar has dominated computer animated filmmaking. They constantly win Academy Awards (9 nominations, 7 wins for Best Animated Feature) and are universally praised for their efforts by the critics. Nearly each Pixar movie has a handful of lessons or dominant themes it tries to teach and tell.

The Toy Story Trilogy (friendship, getting older)

A Bug's Life (self-esteem, ingenuity, teamwork)

Monster Inc (greed, pride)

Finding Nemo (father-son relationship, growing up, letting go)

The Incredibles (family values, honor)

*Cars and Cars 2 (I'm pretty sure these are just about marketing toys)

Ratatouille (friendship, trust, confidence)

WALL-E (consumerism, environmentalism)

Up (love, living life in the moment)

Brave (family values, respect, love, mother-daughter relationship).

However, after seeing MU and reading the critical reviews, I was shocked how many reviewers missed the point of the film and the important lessons Pixar chose to address in the film. You could even make the argument that the lessons in MU are more bold than any previous Pixar film. Which leads to why MU is ultimately about failure and why that's okay.

Obviously, as this is a movie about college, there are your typical and inherent lessons for the characters (finding your place, growing up, building friendships), but the most important and surprising lesson is watching Mike Wazowski fail. This lesson is a particularly unique and groundbreaking approach for the age groups in Generation Y (Millennial) and Z. Generational scholar and author Ron Alsop argued that the Millennial generation is a group of "trophy kids", who were given rewards just for participating. I'm a Millennial and like many of my friends growing up, we all received gold stars on our homework, ribbons for events, etc. constantly rewarding us for just doing our job. You could also argue we've been constantly told that we could achieve anything we want if we just worked hard. We were told there was no way we could fail. This is the definitive issue that MU tackles head-on.

From the age of little monster, Mike is enthralled with the career of being a scarer the job that every monster dreams of. It's for the cream of the crop. Mike is told continually as a small monster that he's too small and not scary enough to succeed. It's only after he sneaks into a live door on the Monsters, Inc. scare floor that people believe he's capable of great things. He uses that moment to work hard and get into Monsters University to study at the School of Scaring.

The main plot is the competitive nature between the hard-working Mike and the famous-last-name Sullivan. Their antagonistic rivalry drives the story until they are forced to work together to get back into the School of Scaring. Like all feel good movies, Mike and Sullivan ultimately save the day, win the Scare Games and are cheered and admired amongst everyone at the school. They defeat the oppressive Dean and defy expectations, the day is theirs! But it's right that that the writers (Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson, Dan Scanlon) drastically changes things.

Sullivan admits to cheating to help his team of lovable losers win and save face for Mike who he believes isn't scary. When Mike finds out, he breaks into the door testing laboratory to prove to himself that he is indeed scary. However, he quickly learns that he does not in fact scare the kids in the cabin. Crushed, Mike goes to the nearby lake and wallows in self-pity. Everything he's dreamed about and worked for has been for naught he's failed to be scary, what society tells them is the only thing monsters should be. In the end Mike accepts this and along with Sully works his way from the mailroom at Monsters Inc. to the scare floor where we find him and Sully in Monsters, Inc.

While this journey from the mailroom to success supports the "work hard and you can accomplish anything" mentality of our generations, it also addresses the fact that Mike isn't ultimately meeting his initial goal. He acknowledges his failure and grows past that. No other examples come to mind of children movies in which a character or character fail and are okay with it, at least not in the end. This is what the critics missed. Pixar has chosen to tell a story about children (monsters) who grew up and realized that they cannot achieve their dreams, that their dreams are out of reach and totally unattainable. This bold lesson is actually a fantastic one for kids who watch this film.

For some, it's been decades of being taught that it is okay to fail, but that with hard work you can still achieve those dreams. For many that's true, but for some it's just not feasible. MU has managed to tell a story that supports that second statement. Failing isn't bad and realizing that some dreams really are out of reach is also okay. The real lesson is to be comfortable with who you are, what you're truly capable of and utilizing your strengths to better yourself and your community. That's what Mike does, he becomes the coach and teacher. His knowledge of scaring helps Sullivan to eventual massive success. He helps the rest of Oozma Kappa reach their dreams.

It's not a story about settling, it's a story about failing, learning from it and growing from the experience to make yourself and others better. It's a life lesson that we should share with this current and future generations. Yes you can reach your dreams with hard work, but if you can't, that's okay too.

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Dumb me! Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb me! All summer I put my faith and hope in the big blockbuster films, the Iron Man 3's and Star Treks of the world. And from Man of Steel to Pacific Rim almost without fail these over budgeted, underwritten explosiony action films left me feeling disappointed and underwhelmed. Except for World War Z there is not a single movie I've seen this summer that I can truly say was a great film. Some were better than others (Oblivion and Pacific Rim were both pretty good) but considering their competition was Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness that's not saying much. All the while I put off seeing Monsters U for weeks. "It looks silly" I said, "Pixar has lost its mojo" the idiot side of my brain insisted. Well, that sure teaches me. I will never doubt Pixar again. Even if they make another mediocre film like Brave, they have more than proven themselves still capable of making a damn good film.

Wall E will always be my favorite Pixar film, and Toy Story 2 will always be my second, but fighting for third place for a long time has been Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, the original Toy Story, and Up. That is the kind of company Monsters U is keeping. It does everything right, from delivering plenty incredibly funny moments balanced with the kind of emotionally powerful and heartfelt scenes that have made Pixar a household name. This movie is so funny I chocked on my popcorn. I haven't laughed this hard in a movie since 21 Jump Street. And it wasn't that cheap appeal to the lowest denominator type humor either. There aren't any fart jokes, poop jokes, inside innuendos about sex or drugs. None of that nonsense here. This is good old fashioned honest to God comedy that's drop dead hilariousness and perfectly appropriate for all ages. When you hear kids laughing in the theaters along me, a 24 year old man, you know its comedy gold. It's because the characters carry the story, and when you have a story driven by strong characters you have a good film. Mike and Sully aren't the only ones delivering laughs, as just about everyone gets in on the action.

Mike and Sully, much like in the original film, star as the main roles but their relationship isn't quite the same. They start the film as heated rivals: Mike is an underdog overachiever who's devoted his entire life to becoming a scarer despite the fact that he's not even remotely scary, while Sully is the son of a famous scarer who's had everything in life handed to him and makes no effort whatsoever in applying himself. Sully has all the natural skill in the world but none of the motivation or drive to apply himself. Mike on the other hand lacks any sort of natural skill. He isn't scary, he's built like a lovable beach ball, he can't roar, but his drive and motivation makes him able to compete with some of the best scarers on campus. It's very Rudy like in that regard, and though not entirely original the way the story is told is Pixar magic at its finest. And like Rudy it teaches us a very valuable lesson that people of all ages can relate to, that despite ones physical limitations, even of those limitations preclude you from achieving something you've wanted your entire life, with enough hard work, dedication, and the right attitude you can very well succeed at what you wanted, even if it's not quite in the way you imagined. Who can't relate to that? Who here wanted to be an athlete when they grew up but didn't have the physical capability to compete past High School? : raises hand: As adults we've all experienced this at one time or another. You wanted to be an actor, an athlete, a musician, something, but despite your hard work and dedication it was just never meant to be. So I sympathize with Mike, as I imagine most audience members will.

At the other end of the spectrum we have Sully, who presents a cool and collected face to the world but is living with the weight of high expectations. His father is a world class scarer, a legend, and so Sully has a lot to live up to. His pedigree makes him blind to his own limitations and the need for improvement while also placing a burden upon him he's terrified of not living up to. He's brash, arrogant, a know it all, but as time goes on and failures pile on top of failures he learns that pedigree is not enough, that without actual effort your natural skills won't mean much of anything. Life won't give you a pass because you are the son of so and so or because you can roar really loud. Eventually you're going to be put to the test, and forced to compete against those of equal or greater natural ability. When that happens it's the ones that apply themselves the most who will succeed. It was great to see Sully's development in this way from hot shot know it all to humble and hardworking individual. I'm telling you there is more depth, growth, and subtlety to these characters then all the summer action films combined. It's not even close.

The animation in this film is the best CGI I've ever seen. For the scenes set in our world I would have to remind myself this was an animated movie. There is a scene when Mike and Sully are sitting by a lake with the moon hovering over them that looks like it could have been shot live action. It's that amazing. If not for the cartoon monsters I might not have been able to tell the difference. This applies to the very well made short, The Blue Umbrella that kicks the movie off. Pixar has always been a pioneer for animation but this is their best, more realistic work yet.

Monsters U is nothing short of a masterpiece. If this were any other studio I'd present this film as their masterpiece, but along with Japanese Studio Ghibli I don't think any studio has such a consistent level of success with almost every film they make. It's merely one of many dozens of fantastic movies by an amazing studio that deserves to be seen. If you've not seen it yet, make a point to do so. You will not be disappointed.

Replay value: High.

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***This review may contain spoilers.***

Like "Monsters, Inc.", "Monsters University" (MU) won't win any recognition for its originality. Relating the tale of the first encounter between all-eye green cyclops Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and blue, hulking, bear-like James "Sully" Sullivan (John Goodman) at the titular institute of higher "scare" learning, MU cribs all over the place. As other posters have noticed, MU borrows fragments of other college-themed movies like "Animal House", the Harry Potter movie heptology (seven films), and even a smidgen of "Back to School". Most tellingly, however, MU is heavily in debt to "The Hunger Games", since the meets held to determine which monster fraternities will be eliminated from the prestigious "scare curriculum" and even from the university take up the bulk of the film. MU robustly and hilariously satirizes the aspects of college and frat life you would expect, but later reveals unexpected insights about the limits of desire, determination, and knowledge, and learning what your true place in the world is.

"Monsters, Inc." focused largely on Sully. This time, in MU, Mike is mostly in the spotlight. We first see him as an appealing schoolkid (voiced by Noah Johnston) with huge aspirations to become a top scarer at the scare factory. Little Mike is sharp enough, and studious enough in..."scareology"... I guess to earn a place at the university. However, he faces two tough obstacles. One, although Mike may have nailed the cerebral, technical aspects of scaring, he may not really be inherently scary. Two, the imperious and disdainful Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren), a cross between a dragon, a praying mantis, and a centipede, candidly and harshly tells Mike he is not a scarer.

There may be a third obstacle. Sully is also attending the university, but he is literally a goof-off party animal because he thinks his family "scaring" pedigree will get him through. So obviously, and perhaps predictably, Mike and Sully aren't friends at first sight. At first, they're not even dorm mates (at least that cliché is avoided for a while); Mike is first paired with Randall "Randy" Boggs, the later reptilian invisible monster in "Monsters, Inc." That soon changes as an assembly mishap involving a cherished scare canister forces the irate Dean to eject Mike and Sully from the "scare curriculum" and pair them off as opposite roommates at the unpopular Oozma Kappa (OK) fraternity.

OKs members are middle-aged squid-like former salesmonster Don (Joel Murry), the bickering two-headed Terri/Terry (Sean Hayes/Dave Foley), the five-eyed Flounder-like Scott (Peter Sohn), and ex-con elbow-macaroni shaped Art (Charlie Day). Even though OK is kinda nerdy and non-scary, Mike convinces the Dean to allow the OK frat to compete in the "Scare Games"; if they survive the games, all of OKs members stay in the scare curriculum; if they don't survive, Mike, and perhaps Sully will be sent packing. Will OK be OK enough to do it? Will Mike and Sully realize their "scare dreams"?

Again, on the surface, MU plays with the framework of the college/fraternity movie and seems to be going where you think it's going. But MU is somewhat surprisingly subtler and deeper than that. It suggests that drive, persistence, hard work and book knowledge are good things to have, but do not necessarily take you where you want to go. Sometimes serendipity intervenes and shows you your true path in life (it's a "Mr. Holland's Opus" thing). Also, those same qualities alone may not predict success; additional qualities such as cunning, cleverness, and "misdirection" can come in handy. MU also suggests that even the most outwardly self-assured people hide reservoirs of self-doubt and fear. However, teamwork and mental focus can overcome those fears and perform amazing feats than no one person can hope to achieve. Most importantly, MU demonstrates that failure can be the steppingstones to ultimate triumph. We know from "Monsters, Inc." that Mike and Sully succeeded in getting jobs at the "scare" factory. MU shows the surprising steppingstones they took to get there.

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Kids loved it. All night long the kids roared and acted like monsters. If you like the first movie you will love this one.

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Capitalizing on the rightly deserved praise and success of the first film, Pixar decided to make a prequel showing how Mike and Sully came to be the dynamic duo of the monster world's energy concern. The movie shows them meeting (and clashing) in Monster University's screamer program. They are polar opposites, with the completely unfrightening Mike showing an uber-nerd's dedication to tests and book-learning while Sully relies on his size and family name to coast by, without realizing that they are things he has to live up to. Will they ever learn to respect and appreciate each other? Will they get kicked out of MU?

The problem with prequels is that we already know how it ends: with the two of them working as the monster world's most successful screamer duo. That means that a movie like this has to find its tension and suspense in the connective tissue. It's never a "will they? won't they?" type of thing, but more of a "how will they?" This is accomplished by setting up a lot more plot turns than you'd expect to find in an animated (children's?) film. In fact, the plot takes so many turns that the real point of the film -to show us how Sully and Mike reach success -is accomplished by a still frame montage at the end (the fourth or fifth montage of the movie, if my memory is correct). Meanwhile, because this is a Pixar film, there are a lot of sight gags, amazingly rendered scenery, goofy strings of dialogue, quasi-cute monster designs, and inside jokes to the first film (as well as a lot of monster-related puns).

It's not a bad film. It's fun, takes an interesting approach to its final moral, and has some cute moments. However, it also feels derivative (say hello to yet another movie about a preppy, jock-ish fraternity in contest against the underdog fraternity), and because the story gets redirected about four or five times, it also feels overlong and needlessly complicated. If you think too long or hard about any real part of the film, flaws reveal themselves pretty readily. They're not huge or gaping, but they're there. Even that's acceptable and would still result in a four-star review except that the first film was so perfectly done that this one feels like a very pale imitation of its predecessor. A visual treat and not without its charms, it still fails to fully satisfy.

3rd Rock From The Sun in 3-D (Collector's Edition) (1997) Review

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"Third Rock from the Sun" started as a mid-season replacement that looked to be lost amists the plethora of "Seinfeld" clones that were ruling the network airwaves. But it's old fashioned approach to humor (slapstick) & over-the-top characters made it a standout for a few seasons.

A true highlight is this wonderful hour-long show in which our four fave resident aliens experience their first encounter with dreams. Since they do not understand that dreaming is normal, they are planning on going back to their homeworld for "repairs". Dick (the always looney John Lithgow), fearful that he'll never see his beloved Mary (Jane Curtin) again, asks for her hand in marraige. Much to the dissapointment of Dick's family.

The show itself is razor sharp with plenty of great character moments and funny lines, but the real highlight are the four "dream" sequences that each character experiences. They were filmed after the sit-com part of the show was complete and are in "3-D".

Dick's dream reflects his paranoid nature with scenes of entrapment and torture, the best part is Jane Curtain as a Marlena Dietrich-ish dominatrix. Tommy's dream takes him from school to the big city & eventually the ocean as his favorite teacher seduces him on an island. Harry's dream is the most fun with him performaing an original Randy Nueman song (complete with the composer appearing briefly in the dream).

But Sally's dream is the true highlight, a ribald take on Fellini's movies. The music is straight from Fellini's masterpiece "La Strada" and Sally dances with her long-suffering love "Donatello" (the always hilarious Wayne Knight).

For "3rd Rock" fans, this is a must for your collection and a wonderful introduction for those who enjoy good 'ol fashioned humor delivered at top volume.

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The Season 2 finale of 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN is subtitled "A Nightmare on Dick Street." This hour-long quite funny episode includes four dream sequences shot in a marvelous 3D technology that doesn't reveal itself if you're not wearing the required glasses, which back in 1997 were sponsored by BARQ'S root beer and sold in advance of the show's broadcast at 7-11 stores at 4 for two bucks.

This 3-D format works best with side-to-side motion. The overall effect is similar to peering thru a ViewMaster. What makes the 3RD ROCK 3-D scenes so memorable even sans depth gimmick is their pure artistry.

In an intro on the videotape, French Stewart (Harry) describes his Randy Newman number as "Busby Berkeley MGM," a bit overgenerous, for it contains no excesses of bodies on-screen. One noticeable thing is that the first 3/4s of this piece, which has unison dancing and several difficult position changes on a city street set, is done in a single take. This segment required 26 discarded attempts before getting it right.

The b&w Sally (Kirsten Johnson) and Officer Don (Wayne Knight) movie-ette is in Italian with subtitles. It's revealed that 'Donatello' is a white-feathered rooster. Sally declares she could never love poultry, coldly shoots a big hole in him and feathers swirl around (superb in 3-D) like crystals in a snow globe.

The Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) sequence is more basic: adolescent pubes have him on a tiny island, lusting over a favorite teacher while his three companions languish at sea, unrescued.

Dick Solomon (John Lithgow) dreams of co-worker and lover Mary Albright (Jane Curtin) as a black leather-clad bleach-blonde Marlene, who sings a few lines of "Falling in Love Again," then tortures Dick in a dentist chair from perdition.

All these creative moments validate a plot of our space travelers believing they're going insane. After contacting the Big Giant Head (via Harry the transmitter), the cliffhanger is three leave Earth and one stays behind, perhaps forever.

After the show, we are presented with a very un-PC alternate ending followed by some Bloopers. Total running time: 62 minutes.

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I was promised 3-d glasses and there were none. I repeatedly tried to contact the seller to remedy the problem, but I heard nothing back.

Discount Ben-Hur (50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition) (2011)

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William Wyler's Oscar-winning BEN-HUR (1959), produced by Sam Zimbalist (who died of a heart attack near the end of filming) and based on a best-selling late 19th Century novel by Lew Wallace, is one hell of a movie experience. Watching a brand-new, pristine camera negative copy, I could not believe that the opening Nativity scene and the Resurrection finale were the same movie. There is just so much here. This remake of the 1925 silent epic, runs 3 hours and 45 minutes, including powerful roadshow bookend music by Miklos Rozsa. It takes its leisurely time in telling the story of a Jew (Charlton Heston) and a Roman (Stephen Boyd), raised as best friends, who become bitter enemies in the Holy Land of Jesus Christ's life. Director Wyler was always known as a painstaking perfectionist who would exhaust cast and crew by doing take after take after take of every scene. But the result for the audience is enthralling.

Wyler had never made a Biblical epic before and wanted to work in every genre; his BEN-HUR is the one with a literate brain. It is hard to believe it had major writing problems, multiple writers, and scenes written the night before they would be filmed. It flows beautifully and is continually engrossing, despite its near four hour length. The cast is impeccable, including Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Jack Hawkins, lovely Haya Harareet, and Oscar winner Hugh Griffith.

If you are looking for the sea battle (directed by Andrew Marton), it is about 70 minutes into part one. If you are seeking out the greatest chariot race in movie history (choreographed and directed by Yakima Canutt), it is about ten minutes after the intermission. The Christ scenes are handled with taste and subtlety; we see only his back or his hand and never hear his voice. In fact, non-Christians might have a difficult time understanding what is going on in those scenes with Jesus, including an impressive Sermon on the Mount near the movie's end. The art direction and costumes are absolutely gorgeous, and Robert Surtees' use of ultra wide-screen Camera 65 is masterful. Most of all, Miklos Rozsa contributes the music score of a lifetime. Everyone won Oscars for their distinguished work. No wonder this BEN-HUR won eleven Oscars the same year as SOME LIKE IT HOT, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, and ANATOMY OF A MURDER. It is a masterpiece. The audio commentary, by scholar and author Gene Hatcher and Mr. Heston, is thoughtful and insightful.

The 1925 silent version, starring Ramon Novarro as Ben-Hur and Francis X. Bushman as Messala, is on disk three of the new and magnificent four disk set. In some ways it is even more impressive than the remake. Novarro and Bushman give performances of a lifetime, the 143 minute length is a good 75 minutes shorter than the 1959 version, the color tinting is very beautiful, the sea battle and chariot race are sensationally good by any standards, and the silent version has far more Jesus Christ scenes and in two-color Technicolor. Carl Davis' orchestra score is outstanding, as always.

The disk four bonuses include two major documentaries, one for the 1994 tape version and one brand-new for this 2005 DVD restoration. We also get "BEN-HUR: A JOURNEY THROUGH PICTURES", several 1959 movie theatrical trailers, and a gallery of vintage newsreels heralding the arrival and covering the premiere of the lavish remake in 1959. This $40 DVD set is a work of art and deserves a place in every library, even if it takes you a while to see all four disks of material. Amazon.com has it for $30, not much more than the cost of a family of four going out to a new movie at night. With both the 1925 and 1959 versions included in flawless prints, this DVD set gets my highest recommendation.

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I WOULD GIVE THIS RELEASE 10 STARS if Amazon allowed me to!

Ben-Hur is one of my all time favorite films. It is probably the single greatest performance ever given by Charlton Heston and the greatest epic ever filmed until the Lord of the Rings trilogy came along but still it holds it's head high and remains a timeless classic, just as good as it ever was, maybe better today!

Much has been written about the film itself, so my review will just cover the actual Blu Ray presentation and the included extras.

Many sets have been released with much ballyhoo and assorted trinkets and swag included in the box. Much of it is useless stuff you look at once, then put away and never see again. This is NOT the case with the Ben-Hur boxed set. Everything you get in this box set is of high quality and compliments the film itself. Speaking of the box itself, it is a very VERY nice embossed keepsake box that is protected by an outer covering and when opened reveals the film along with two books. The three included discs are housed in a nice glossy fold out container with full color high quality printed photographs both inside and outside. The presentation is gorgeous, a real head turner.

You get the film, Ben-Hur spread over two BD 50GB discs for maximum quality and zero compression artifacts and presented in it's original aspect ratio of 2.76:1. This is basically the widest of the wide screen formats, filmed in luscious 70mm with 65mm used for picture information and the remaining 5% used for the original 6 track magnetic soundtrack. Ben-Hur was painstakingly restored, in fact it took them so much time that the actual 50th Anniversary of Ben-Hur was missed by a few years in order to provide us with the BEST picture and sound possible. Yes, we have all heard those words before, but in this case it is REALLY true!

I have owned Ben-Hur on VHS and then all the various DVD releases. It has always lacked in the video quality department and I am happy to say that is no longer the case. This Blu Ray release of Ben-Hur gives us Bold and Crisp NATURAL color (NO TEAL tint anyway in sight), NO signs of DNR, NO signs of edge enhancement , beautifully lush and focused cinematography that may even perhaps afford the home theater enthusiast with a better visual presentation than most theater goers got back in 1959.

It is a 1959 film to be sure, but is is ALSO reference quality in every sense of the word. This is what REAL film looks like, no digital enhanced crapola! This is a beautifully filmed epic and the Blu Ray transfer faithfully represents the finished product from 1959, looking more like something filmed recently. The investment in both money and time by Warner Home Video was well worth it, showing all of us what Blu Ray releases COULD look like, if the proper care was shown prepping and transferring the original film elements.

The time and money spent on restoring and rescanning Ben-Hur is obvious from the very beginning of the film. The resulting transfer is a singular achievement in home video entertainment. I have only a few negatives to mention, namely a few places that exhibit 'jump cuts' where a very small number of frames in a scene are missing or were damaged beyond repair and needed to be discarded to keep from spoiling the mostly pristine look of the rest of the film. At one point during the start of the big race I noticed a few white blips or print tear marks and an actual hair on the left side of the screen. I thought I imagined it so I went back and watched in slow motion. Yeah, they were there alright, but they were gone very quickly, never to return. Luckily the audio does NOT suffer in these instances and there are very few OF them. This is NOT a transfer that in any way requires an apology (such as The Godfather, pt.1) or needs to be prefaced by saying "It looks good for the films age". This IS a classic film from the tail end of Hollywood's Golden age, and as such has the look of a classic film. The color timing and lighting choices, the types of special effects used (no CGI back then) and the sometimes very noticeable dialogue looping are all byproducts of the way films were made then. I guess what I am trying to say is this is NOT 100% perfect, but then again, no film is or ever was. The only way Ben-Hur could look any better is to print this new scan at it's full resolution and then project it the old fashioned way.

Even with a few missing frames I easily give Ben-Hur on Blu Ray 10 stars for the video quality alone!!!!

As a nice bonus this disc is NOT Java encumbered and as such your 'disc resume' feature WILL work, which is a boon for a title of this length if you can't sit still for the entire run time and need a few breaks.

The audio is pretty much just as great as the picture. Presented in DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 , this might be the very best Ben-Hur has EVER sounded, then or now. Nothing gimmicky about the surrounds, the dialogue is perfectly rendered, no clicks, pops or blatant flaws, no screechy sounding music. During the big race the crowd sound effects coming from my rear surrounds were distorted a bit. This might have been how they were originally recorded but as the race progresses some elements of the audio mix suffer a bit, the louder things get, the more certain sounds break up. It isn't my system, I can blast the LOTR trilogy with no ill effects. You need a good ear and decent speakers to notice this, but for those that are picky I will admit that it is there.

Also, for those with 'Golden Ears' you WILL hear the occasional hiss that the digital noise reduction didn't get rid of and you will also hear a bit of low frequency hum and rumble at times which sounds mechanical in nature to me but it is on the track and on the disc. Most people will never notice it, but I tend to watch and listen with critical eyes and ears the first time around. All in all it is simply a stunning job of remixing and remastering the original magnetic sound elements. Put this together with almost perfectly restored picture quality and you have an epic presentation of an epic film. The good far outweighs the bad in regards to the sound.

The Bonus features are superlative. A keepsake quality book of glossy production photographs, an exact reproduction of Charlton Heston's personal production diary, two full length documentaries, screen tests, original movie trailers, a wonderful 'Music Only' track that highlights Miklos Rozsa's beautiful Oscar wining score , Newsreel footage and even Oscar Highlights from 1960 when Ben-Hur swept the awards with a record 11 Oscars, not topped EVER and not equaled until Titanic and then Lord of the Rings. Add to all this the original Silent version of Ben-Hur from 1925 and you have enough bonus features to fill all the chariots in the big race.

This Ben-Hur Boxed set totally exceeded any and all my highest expectations. The best presentation imaginable for one of the best films ever made. Ben-Hur (50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition) is a MUST OWN for all classic film lovers and fans of Charlton Heston. I think it is THE BEST Blu Ray release of this year, easily outshining Star Wars and even the LOTR trilogy. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

WORD OF WARNING!!(contains spoilers)--- Make sure you hit the STOP button on your Blu Ray player IMMEDIATELY following the "The End" title card , otherwise you will be inexplicably treated to a censors approval screen from India and then directly into the FBI threatening to put you in prison if you bootleg or share your discs. It REALLY spoiled the mood I was in after such a wonderful movie and just a beautiful ending. Judah Ben-Hur has his Mother and Sister back and Leprosy free, he got the girl, Masala was ripped apart and Judah Ben-Hur has just been converted to Christianity by Jesus (In Person!!), The music swells to a crescendo and it says "The End" .. Great! Then less than 10 seconds later you get this other weird stuff and I can't for the life of me figure out how this got past the disc authoring stage and onto my disc! GRRR! ANYWAY, you might wish to avoid that mood killer by remembering to hit STOP as soon as the end title card fades out. Like Gilda Radner liked to say, "It's always SOMETHIN'" !!

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Great movie. My primary concern when I ordered was the movie would be cropped to 1.77:1. Based on information from other sources, I took a chance. Fortunately, the product details above are wrong. The back cover says the aspect ratio is 2.76:1, not 1.77:1. On my TV, it measures out around 2.65:1. It looks like this is discs 1 & 2 from the Ultimate Edition, so if you can forgo the books, nice case, and the special features on disc 3, this is a low cost alternative.

Honest reviews on Ben-Hur (50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition) (2011)

This film when it was released in 1959 saw it's studio MGM teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and the fact that this film cost in 1958 close to $15 Million dollars was most assuredly a make or break film for the studio.

William Wyler the film's director, in order to make this film unique as if a running time close to four hours was not enough, filmed it in an aspect ratio of 2.76:1 using what was called MGM Camera 65, an Ultra Panavision process.

This film was one of only two films that were filmed in that process which is the widest of processes used in film to date.

Filmed utilizing 8000 extras, 300 sets, and over 100,000 costume changes this film epitomizes the word grand and released a few years after the Ten Commandments, it helped quench the public thirst for Biblical films.

This new DVD release is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and the LFE channel(Low Frequency Effects) is apparent on two standout scenes, the Sea Battle scene, and the now infamous chariot scene which last close to 11 minutes.

There are quite a few special features on this DVD release most of which appear on side two of this disc including a documentary, Ben Hur: The Making Of An Epic, which is just under an hour long.

There was an open casting call for the lead role in this film and they have included on this DVD the original screen tests by Leslie Nielsen, and Cesare Danova which are interesting to see even though the quality of the audio and video are not up to the level of the film itself.

Also included are storyboard art and posters as well as film biographies of the cast with pictures of them in character from the film.

Overall this film is an incredible piece of work and presented in it's original aspect ratio with the enhanced sound combines to make an experience that should not be missed.

This film on the small screen does lose a little bit of it's lustre especially if your television is under 27 inches in size but this film begs to be seen in it's broad presentation, so even if you would normally shy away from widescreen presentations, this is the only way to view this film in my honest opinion.

On a rating scale of Bronze to Platinum...This film receives my highest rating.....Platinum!!!! Run don't walk to pick this DVD up!!!

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OK, let me get my review of the film itself out of the way first. FLAWLESS in every aspect!!!! You just don't see films like this anymore. Enough said.

Now I will get down to the specifics of this Blu-ray edition:

Outer Box:

About the same size as Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind collections. You slide the slipcover off to reveal a GORGEOUS black box with the title in bronzed bas relief on the top. This is not a flip up case like Wiz and Gone, but a box with a removable lid. The artwork of the title is truly beautiful. It looks like bronze with the statues from the arena of the big chariot race bookending the title BEN HUR. You immediately get the feeling that what you're holding in your hands is something of high quality.

Inside the Box:

Lift the lid off the box and you see the hardcover book with a black ribbon underneath to help lift it out of the box. The book also has the title in bronzed raised text with a wonderful picture of Heston in the iconic chariot race. The book itself is filled with gorgeous quality images where the colors just pop off the page. The gold background on some of the pages adds a touch of class to this book.

The Discs:

The three Blu-ray discs are housed in a very study try-fold disc holder that is very similar to that used in the recent Taxi Driver Blu-ray. Each disc is very sparse in its presentation. The background of the try-fold is a color image of Heston in the chariot race. The discs themselves are very classy with solid black and the text on the discs in a dusty gold. Nothing flashy here, which adds to the ambience of class that oozes from this set. What's on the discs is just breathtaking. Warner Bros. has outdone themselves with the restoration of Ben Hur on Blu-ray. The image is so crisp and clear that I noticed things in the far distance of some scenes that I had never noticed before. e.g.) In the opening of the film when we see a Roman garrison walking across the landscape, I now notice a tiny line of red capes in the far distance moving. I have never seen them before, because I never saw the red robes that are easy to spot now. While Blu-ray could easily hold the full content of this epic on one disc, it was a wise decision to spread it over two discs. Thus allowing the film to be presented in the most pristine image and sound ever!! The bonus disc has the original silent version of the film, along with tons of extras. One of the new extras is a documentary of Heston as he was filming Ben Hur. This documentary is worth the purchase alone. The Heston family has allowed the inclusion of family films and pictures, which really present Heston as a truly loving family man. While the silent version does not seem to have received any major restoration, it is still an upgrade to the image of the previous DVD version.

Heston Journal:

Have you ever bought a collector's edition of a movie and thought, "Why would they include this in the box???" There are no cheap chachkis here. I really wasn't really enthused about this journal, until I actually read it. First of all the journal is a beautiful reproduction of Heston's personal daily journal as he worked on this film. It opens with an introduction from his son Fraser, and then you turn the page and see Heston's personal daily journal pages that have been reproduced so that you actually feel like you're looking at the real thing. The hardcover is designed to look like a stitched leather journal with the bas-relief image of one of the arena statues from the chariot races on the cover. The name Charlton Heston is stamped in gold at the bottom. it is really interesting to see what Heston was thinking on a daily basis of filming one of the greatest films of all time. There are some reproductions of photos, tickets, and other items that are actually taped into the journal to make it seem more realistic. At the end of the journal, we are presented with some personal photos showing Heston with his family around Rome and the movie set. The last image of him walking away on the ancient streets of Rome dressed in a suit while holding his sons hand who happens to be dressed in Roman soldier garb is truly touching. To my surprise, we are also treated to some of Heston's sketches from the movie set. I had no idea he was such an artist! Finally, the journal closes with a brief biography of Heston. This journal is captivating, and engaging to read. What a wonderful extra to put in this collection. No collectible watches, no stacks of cheaply produced post cards, just simple memorabilia of this historic film.

I previously had the 4-disc collector's edition DVD, and I was quite happy with it. However, seeing the love and attention that Warner Bros. has put into this edition, I can strongly urge you to upgrade to this new Blu-ray edition. The sound and image is better than you've ever seen before, and the extra items in the box are well worth keeping. Oh, and did I mention you can get all of this for a fraction of the price you may have paid for previous collector's editions??? This is a no-brainer.......Add it to your cart right now!!

Discount Toy Story (Ultimate Toy Box Collector's Edition) (1999)

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If you're an "extras" hound like me, "Toy Story & Toy Story 2 The Ultimate Toy Box" is the promised land. Hands down the best goodies of any DVD to this date. Oh yeah, and you get two excellent movies too! :)

I won't spend time on the movies themselves, except to say that they're two of the most entertaining films ever made. Instead, let's focus on why to get the 3-DVD set instead of the 2-DVD set.

The third DVD is truly impressive. You'll find fully-animated deleted scenes; funny & interesting interviews with cast, crew, animators, etc.; an absolutly hysterical debate on "Who's the best character?" with Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and the whole cast; some very detailed explanations of the techniques used to create the movies; and so much more. I've spent over three hours on Disc 3 alone so far, and there's a lot more to go!

There are even cool hidden features. For example, on Disc 3 choose 'Toy Story 2.' Under the 'Story' section, choose 'Jesse's Song.' On the next screen that appears, press the 'Left' arrow key on your remote control & you'll see a question mark. With the question mark highlighted, hit 'Enter' for a outtake with an introduction by the directors.

The sound & picture quality on all three discs are the best I've seen on DVD. Helps when the whole movie was CREATED digitally, eh? :)

All in all "The Ultimate Toy Box" is the best DVD set around, bar none. Well worth the extra money!

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This is a beautifully packaged collection! Get one while supplies last, it may prove as valuable as a vintage Woody doll. Pixar really came up with something wonderful in these two stories, both provide such engaging accounts of one's [longing] for toys of the past. My kids treasure these two movies and the dialog is witty enough to draw parents into the stories. Toy Story II builds on the former, introducing a wider range of characters and offering a light-hearted parable on the collection mania in America. One too many out of the frying pan and into the fire situations for my taste, but the action keeps kids enthralled throughout. Hanks and Allen lend great voice to the battling lead characters, and there are many other wonderful voices as well. The only drawback (and it is a mild one) is not mixing Pixar toys with real family members. I think that would have made the stories even more compelling.

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This 3-Disc Set is truly the 'Ultimate' set for the fans of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. If you havent seen one or both movies, They each are made with kids AND adults in mind, and there are plenty of in-jokes to look for while watching (Spoofs include Airplane, 2001, Star Wars, Spinal Tap, Close Encounters, and Die Hard just to name a FEW). There are even some funny gags from the second movie that play off the first. If your afraid the second falls into the category of 'typical animated sequel,' you'll be pleasantly surprised to find a movie I consider better than the first. The set is a veritable treasure chest of extras -Toy Shorts from ABC Saturday morning ads, faux onscreen interviews, full-length commentary on both movies, isolated music and fx tracks, Dolby surround, International dubbing sampler, making-of featurette (not a shabby one either), a lesson on how they took a distinctly american transition from the second movie and tweaked it to suit international audiences, 2 animated shorts, and much, much more. I can't recommend this highly enough.

Honest reviews on Toy Story (Ultimate Toy Box Collector's Edition) (1999)

I am a Toy Story lover for many reasons. I love high quality animation, and used to go to animation festivals all the time to watch the craft grow and mature. To see the amazing results of the first-ever true full length movie done solely by computer, and to have its means of creation pale to its incredible storyline, character depth, and general quality of production, is something not often seen in today's motion picture industry.

These two movies (Toy Story 1 and 2) are great for kids. You have themes children can easily relate to jealousy, losing something you love dearly, dealing with friends, apologizing and making up when you have been mean to someone, you name it. Where a sequel is usually worse than the original, Toy Story 2 again breaks the mold by coming through with a fantastic storyline, as Woody is stolen by a selfish toy collector who wants to sell him for a fortune, to be trapped in a museum forever.

For adults, the series shines as well. The wealth of in-jokes is simply phenomonal. There are references to Star Wars, to old westerns, to literature, you name it. A whole book could be done on the ways in which these movies appeals to the older movie watcher.

The voice actors are all well known Don Rickles, Tim Allen, Tom Hanks, etc. etc. and they do a stellar job. You really become attached to these toys, which are very dimensional and believable. You understand their failings and applaud their triumphs.

Just getting the two movies on DVD might be enough but then they made a THIRD DVD which is stuffed full of amazing extras!! How about a guide to the hidden jokes? Reviews of each character, each character's actor, and sketches and history of how they changed over time?

The DVD explains with great video clips how a storyboard is made, how the sound is mixed, how the animation is done, and they even have special features where you can mix the sound YOURSELF to see how effect noises and music affect the movie. Plus SO much more.

I would pay more than the movie DVD cost to get this extra DVD, because it is a superb way for both adults and children to learn a wealth of information about making movies and how things are done. Who knows, after watching the special DVD, your kids might suddenly decide to become a sound magician, or a lighting expert, because they see how these roles can have a huge impact on a film like this.

I highly recommend that every household with a DVD get your hands on this three-pack, and if you don't have a DVD player, this is the perfect reason to get it. Even if you have the video copy, give that away to your local library and buy this. It is priceless.

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As good as the "Bug's Life" special edition DVD was, this wonderful 3 disc set is even better. I loved the original "Toy Story" from the first time I saw it. I was very happy to see that the same care and attention to story was put into the sequel. And I was overjoyed at how great this DVD set is.

Like any good special edition of an animated film, this DVD has piles of artwork of everything from Woody's origins as a ventriloquist's dummy to the anthropomorphic female cactus that became Jessie to the layout of Andy's room to the toys on the shelves at Al's Toy Barn. The original plot of the first movie is available for reading. Storyboards run alongside completed scenes or outline abandoned concepts. One particularly odd feature lets you look at a few rendering glitches which result in characters' body parts being switched or misplaced, giving lie to the idea that having an animated film "done with computers" makes things significantly easier. The commentary alone is worth the price of this whole set. The head honchos of Pixar talk about their film with an enthusiasm which shows the time and care that went into their making.

I can pretty honestly reccomend this DVD to just about anyone. There's so much stuff supporting these two great films that you're bound to find something you like. Probably a whole lot of somethings.

X-Men: The Adamantium Collection (Limited Collector's Edition) Reviews

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This Box set is amazing to most X-Men film lovers. This box set does indeed includes an empty slot for Days of Future Past. It even includes a behind the scenes interview with many of the Actors from the series. Yes I know that all this is stated on the info page, but from all the negative reviews, it seems like people don't read that page.

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I don't see why people would get bent out of shape thinking this movie is already outdated....of course it's already out dated, even if you add days of future past, it'd still be out of date. You really think they're done making x-men movies?

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So another special limited collector's platinum edition gets to see the light of the day.

I'm not going to lie: this one looks really awesome BUT there are of course some things I don't like about it.

1. The name: Okay, this is just me being a nitpicker but on June 18, 2013 Marvel released a boxset called Wolverine: The Adamantium Collection which includes the most important stories about Wolverine. The X-Men universe is so diverse, why couldn't they come up with a different name hence both collections are released within half a year from another and it may confuse some people.

2. The claw: I don't have anything against the idea that they used the Wolverine claw at all. I like the character and I understand that he's one of the most famous characters (or did you see a movie which was just about Cyclops, Storm, etc?). The thing is, and I speak from experience because I bought the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One Avengers Assembled (10-Disc Limited Edition Six-Movie Collector's Set) [Blu-ray], how they are going to implement it. With the aforementioned collector's set at first you got to see a nice suitcase including an imitation of the Tesseract but once I finally received it (I'm living in Germany, so I got it like 3 days after the release, thanks to Amazon!) my heart dropped a little... The case was smaller than I expected, made out of hard plastic which wasn't that bad though, and the tesseract is just a chunk of white plastic which lights up.

It's comprehensible that a bigger case made out of metal would be much more expensive to produce but most of the people who buy such things are collectors as the name states and therefore ready to pay a little bit more if the quality is right.

I don't want to talk excessively about that collection now but I'm just worried the same thing will happen to this one: a fake-leather glove with silver plastic claws.

3. The movies: First of all I don't have anything against the X-Men movies. I think some of them are great while others are not so great but you have this problem in every movie franchise. I'm just happy that they are still making movies about the X-Men. BUT if you are going to release such a collection and you know that another movie is coming out a few months after this release WHY couldn't you just wait some more months to make this collection a definite complete collection or at least make THIS one a special edition for the new Wolverine movie? I hate having 5 different complete collections just because there are a few things different from one another (i.e. the Bonus disc from Iron Man 2 which is omitted from the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 1 Collection for whatever reason..).

Enough ranting for today. I'm sorry for any mistakes I made but English is not my native tongue ;)

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Honestly the only issue I have with the item is the collection itself. I truly wish that they would have waited until after Days of Futures Past comes out and included it in the collection.

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Considering the fact that X-Men Days of Future Past hits theaters next year this set is incomplete before it even releases.

Even with the empty slot, the price is just way too much IMO

Best Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Widescreen Special Deals

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Within the first fifteen minutes of Sky Captain, I was in. Gigantic robots swarm New York City and stomp through the streets, Gwenyth Paltrow as Polly Perkins does a pitch-perfect emulation of those 1930's newspaper gals, and the whole movie has the feel of the best old sci-fi movie never made. I felt like a five-year-old again; not in that still-eating-paste sense, but because something on the screen was so boldly exciting I nearly leapt out of my seat and applauded. No freaking joke. Needless to say, the rest of Sky Captain never really reaches the level of invigoration that its slam-bang opener achieves (and yeah, it has a few slow moments), but it's still an accomplished, consistently interesting movie with enough in-jokes to keep film buffs satisfied (look for not only references to The Wizard of Oz, but a few Citizen Kane nods as well) and enough rip-roaring action for everyone else.

Sky Captain could have been an empty exercise just for the sake of a new filmmaking technique I'm sure you know by now it was all done in front of a blue screen. What makes it so interesting, though, is how seriously everyone takes the whole endeavor. Jude Law effortlessly embodies the sarcastic, multi-talented everyman do-gooder; Gwenyth Paltrow delivers those one-liners in a way that Howard Hawks would be proud; Giovanni Ribisi steals his scenes like any faithful sidekick should; and the whole plot of the movie (which could have been a borderline parody) comes off as deadly serious. Don't let the blue-screen hesitation hold you back from this one; if you complain that they don't make 'em like they used to, here's proof that it's not always the case. B+

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I think I can say with some confidence that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is not quite like any other film you've ever seen. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on what you think a movie should be.

Sky Captain is set in the years between the World Wars. Ace big-city reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) gets wind of a shadowy world-domination plot involving a German uber-scientist, named Totenkopf. As she begins to investigate, the city is attacked by giant robot storm troopers, who wreak destruction and attempt to steal the municipal generators. (I am not making this up.) Polly and the city are saved by the timely arrival of Joe "Sky Captain" Sullivan (Jude Law), who turns the tide in his trusty P-40 fighter plane. Polly and Joe, who have a bit of a history, reluctantly join forces to find Totenkopf and foil his evil plans. They are aided by Joe's whiz-kid sidekick, Dex (Giovanni Ribisi), and his old flame Francesca "Franky" Cook (Angelina Jolie), who is the commodore of an armada of flying British aircraft carriers. (Still not making this up.) The good guys brave sundry fantastical adventures involving many more mechanized henchmen before they finally locate Dr. Totenkopf's lair in Nepal. The ultimate confrontation that ensues between good and evil brings the earth to the brink of apocalypse.

Okay, so much for the plot, which is pretty negligible. And while we're at it, let's dispose of the acting; Law, Paltrow and Ribisi are capable actors with good range, but Sky Captain's script wouldn't overtax the thespianic skills of a wombat. All of which is beside the point, because this movie is about other things.

The first thing to know about Sky Captain is that pretty much everything you see on the screen, aside from the actors themselves, is created whole cloth out of CGI. That gives creator Kerry Conran almost unlimited license to do whatever he chooses and what he chooses is very odd indeed, if rather intriguing withal. Conran goes to extraordinary lengths to make Sky Captain look convincingly like a very old science fiction movie; even the "film" stock seems aged, the color bleached, the images burred with slight haloes. The very conceit of a lone mad scientist developing technology to destroy the world as we know it is hopelessly antique (although admittedly the plot has rather a lot in common with 1979's Moonraker). And the gargantuan, bolted and riveted, bucket-headed robots look like they marched straight out of the 1950s.

Conran gleefully adopts the logic holes, discontinuities, and plot conveniences that were standard in movies before audiences developed a taste for realism. Early in the movie, for instance, Dex is grabbed by a robot and carried off, but somehow finds time to leave a clue stuck to the underside of a desk by a wad of chewed gum. Following the clue, Joe and Polly fly all over the globe (including an ocean or two) in his little P-40, managing to pack along a few cases of Vienna Sausages and an apparently inexhaustible supply of wardrobe changes. At one point, the plane gets a big rock lodged in its tail assembly, making it impossible for Joe to maneuver, but then a few moments later the rock is conveniently gone. And how the heck does Totenkopf build a monumental fortress, complete with armies of giant automata and a rocket launch complex, in the inaccessible wastes of Nepal?

What's significant is not that these implausibilities exist in the movie, but that the writer/director flaunts them and demands that you notice. Conran emulates even "flaws" like these from the old movies he evokes, because those flaws arose out of a romantic mindset that he is making every effort to recreate.

On one level, the film is a straightforward story about Joe and Polly and Dex and Totenkopf; but on another and ultimately more important level, it's about nostalgia. Not only nostalgia for old science fiction movies, I think, though Conran clearly delights in them; but even more for the innocence of a world view that made such movies possible. In a way, Sky Captain with its indestructable hero, its moral certainty, and its inhuman, otherworldly menace is more about Iraq and September 11 than it is about monster robots. It's about decisive, cinematic victories instead of messy, real-life quagmires. If your idea of a good movie is one that places complex characters in realistic conflict, go see The Door in the Floor. But if you'd rather suspend disbelief for a couple hours, flying your P-40 into the sunset of a happy ending, check out Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Best Deals for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Widescreen Special

The soft-focused, noir-esque, 1930s-style retrofuture of "Sky Captain" is a visual feast to behold, unabashedly revelling in obvious influences as Lang's "Metropolis" and B-movies of the 1930s. Amid some viewers' complaints of underdeveloped characters and dialogue, here's a movie for those us who truly "get it." Granted, this movie is not for everyone. But quite frankly, it has a lot of balls.

And dirigibles! And exploding dirigibles, at that! And giant robots! And...

But I digress. The Question is: Why should you see this movie? To put it simply, it will be unlike any other movie you've seen recently. I want to see more movies like this. I want to see more movies that take chances.

This is a movie for those who enjoy dirigibles, giant robots, ornithopters, dogfights, Manhattan, searchlights, Gwyneth Paltrow's cute over-bite, "larger than life" heros, the German language, mad scientists, industrial complexes, ray guns, dinosaurs, B-movies, film noir, steampunk, Ridley Scott's Los Angeles, the aforementioned "Metropolis", "The Wizard of Oz", Terry Gilliam's "Brazil", China Mieville's New Crobuzon....The point is that this movie takes you somewhere quite different. "Sky Captain" harkens back to a particular time and particular genre of truly escapist movies. And plus, the exploding dirigibles were just freakin' cool.

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"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" represents the triumph of style over substance, the P-40 Tomahawk over mechanical monsters, and computer generated actors over death itself. That last part is actually the tip of an ethical iceberg that has the potential of being the biggest point of contention in Hollywood since Ted Turner broke out his box of crayons and started colorizing black & white classic films. But for now we can just enjoy director-writer Kerry Conran's tribute to both the decade and the serials of the 1930s done with enough digital magic to make going over the rainbow seem like an unnecessary journey.

The story begins in a New York City untouched by either the Great Depression or the madness of Hitler's Nazis. But there is still a Teutonic threat beginning to encroach on the civilized world courtesy of the brilliant, mysterious, and apparently evil Dr. Totenkopf (enjoy the surprise). Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), an intrepid reporter for "The Chronicle," stumbles upon the first significant clue about the good doctor only to be distracted by the legion of giant killer mechanical men walking down the streets of New York City. In defense of the city comes Joe Sullivan (Jude Law), the Sky Captain himself, whose P-40 Tomahawk with its Flying Tiger teeth has been souped up by his sidekick, Dex Dearborn (Giovanni Ribisi). Of course Polly and Joe had something in the past, so there is a lot of subtext to her backseat driving as they go merrily along.

In the grand tradition of the Saturday morning serial the hero and his gal get on the trail of the bad machines, fueled by Dex being kidnapped by a mysterious Asian woman (Bai Ling) and helped by a few old friends, most notably Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie), the commander of a most unusual British airship. The running gag for the second half of the film is that Polly has only two shots left in her camera and keeps bypassing visual wonders, such as the real Shangri-La, because there could be something better around the corner.

Visually, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is a visual treat, filled in the same sort of sepia tones we associate with the first reel of "The Wizard of Oz," a film that is clearly a reference point for Conran. Much is made of the fact that the actors performed in front of a blue screen to which Conrad added all the dazzling images of the mechanical creations in the art deco style of a lot of the architecture we see in the film, all glowing with a blue light. But Law, Paltrow, Jolie and the rest of the cast get credit for playing these roles straight without ever getting too tongue in cheek. This is an earnest homage and not parody, and while the result might not be great cinema it is still as much fun as any of the Saturday morning serials it wants to emulate.

This film wants to be "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for a new generation of filmgoers weaned on computer generated images, but it is not up to that level. The difference can be simply quantified by saying Kerry Conran is not Steven Spielberg, but it would be more worthwhile to point out that in his first film Conran has a much better handle on the cinematic over the dramatic aspects of movie making. His next project is the long awaited adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough's "A Princess of Mars," with a screenplay by Mark Protosevich ("The Cell"), which should help firm up the dramatic half of the equation. Given the stunning eye candy provided in his debut effort, whatever Conran does in the future will certainly be worth a look.

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Computer generated special effects have been around for quite some time now, and often questionably so, but they come into their own with Kerry Conran's SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW--an innovative film that failed in theatrical release but which now makes a big splash in the home market. And whether you love it or hate it, SKY CAPTAIN is likely to cast a very long shadow indeed.

As a concept, the film seems to be based on the popular serials of the 1930s and 1940s. This is not limited to the use of an improbable plot fueled by special effects and cliffhanger action sequences, but it extends to the dialogue and characters as well, all of which are typical of such celebrated serials as BUCK ROGERS, CAPTAIN MARVEL, SPY SMASHER, and THE CRIMSON GHOST. The film also draws specific plot elements from such diverse sources as KING KONG, LOST HORIZON, THE WIZARD OF OZ, and WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, to name but a few.

The story is typical of serials. "Girl Reporter" Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) is doing a story on missing scientists--and when giant metal robots attack New York she unexpectedly holds a clue to their origin. She and Sky Captain (Jude Law) form an uneasy alliance to get to the bottom of things. With an assist from Sky Captain's faithful sidekick Dex (Giovanni Ribisi) and the disconcertingly military Frankie (Angelina Jolie), the two search the world--and finally track the wicked Dr. Totenkopf (Laurence Olivier, resurrected via CGI) to his secret lair.

The look of the film follows suit. The live cast worked on a blue screen set, and with the exception of a single set, the costumes, and items the live actors had to handle, everything you see on the screen was created in the computer and added after the fact. A great many people have described the look of the film as "deco," an arts movement associated with the 1920s; this is misleading. It would be more accurate to describe it as a mixture of pre-WWII arts movements filtered through a 1950s sensibility, and the result is like nothing so much as a pulp science fiction magazine cover unexpectedly come to life.

Now, how much you like this will depend to a great extent on how clearly you recognize the film styles and specific films that have clearly influenced it. If you know nothing about serials, for example, you are likely to be appalled by the flatness of the script and Paltrow's one-note performance; on the other hand, if you are a serial fan, you'll immediately recognize that the script is reflective of such serials as SPY SMASHER and that Paltrow echoes Linda Sterling, famous for such serials as THE CRIMSON GHOST. It wouldn't be too much to say that in many respects SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW is akin to an inside joke.

But most particularly, your liking for this film will depend on how you react to the visuals. I am not a great fan of CGI when it is used to bolster live action films such as GLADIATOR or TITANIC; I can usually spot the CGI and I find it distracting. But I have to come down in favor of SKY CAPTAIN: this isn't an effort to "make it look real;" this is an effort to make a totally artificial world, and whether it be giant robots, Shangri-La, or Radio City Music Hall the designs are stunning and remarkably well executed. Whatever other shortcomings it may have, SKY CAPTAIN has incredible visual "WOW!"

The DVD release is visually handsome with superior sound, and the package contains a fair number of bonuses. Unfortunately, the two commentary tracks are less interesting than you might expect, but two short documentaries ("Brave New World" and "The Art of the World of Tomorrow") are quite good--and the original six minute short that inspired the film is fascinating. Not every one will get it, so I recommend you rent before you buy, but on the whole this is a show truly worth the money. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer