DVD Reviews - Page 2

It was a war – and a series of military campaigns – like no other. Now HISTORY puts you in the action with Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. as he leads his heroic soldiers in North Africa, in the invasion of Sicily, and in the charge across Europe to defeat Hitler’s Third Reich.

Following on the success of BATTLE 360, PATTON 360 uses cutting-edge computer graphic animation and the latest technology to bring viewers a 360-degree view of World War II. Patton, a complicated, colorful and ferociously determined officer known as “Old Blood and Guts”, springs to life with the aid of archival footage, personal diary quotes, and commentary from historians and veterans. With insight into the forces he commanded and battles he led, you’ll be there for all the drama, from lightning-fast armored assaults to the Battle of the Bulge and the final battles inside Germany after crossing the Rhine. Grab a helmet and prepare for action!

A British television classic, based on the detective fiction of Nicolas Freeling.

Commisaris Simon “Piet” van der Valk (Barry Foster) has the air of a man who has seen it all. And he probably has. As a detective with the Amsterdam police, his daily caseload brings him into regular contact with the seamy underside of the Dutch capital. From brothels to transvestite clubs to drug dens, Van der Valk moves in the city’s dark corners that tourists rarely see.

Suave but cynical, the cultured Van der Valk has a taste for the finer things in life – symphony music, good wine, and the cooking of his beautiful French-born wife. But even long-suffering Arlette (Susan Travers) can tell that Piet is most at home when he’s at work. There, alongside easygoing Inspecteur Johnny Kroon (Michael Latimer), every new case is a personal challenge to this unorthodox cop on the streets of old Amsterdam.

Bonus feature: biography of Van der Valk creator, novelist Nicolas Freeling.

Crime-to-court suspense from Lynda La Plante.

Created and written by La Plante, “the playwright laureate of women crime-stoppers” (NPR’s Weekend Edition) – this British series displays the same hard-bitten sensibility and emotional resonance that made PRIME SUSPECT  a television landmark. Each drama follows a single case from crime to conclusion. Every twist in the investigation and turn in the trial realistically depict an imperfect system in which justice doesn’t always triumph. Along the way, La Plante takes an unblinking look at the psychological scars that violence leaves on its victims and its investigators.

In these three feature-length mysteries, police probe a young man’s abduction on his honeymoon, the mysterious death of a teenage girl, and a string of brutal murders perpetrated by a serial killer.

Starring David Hayman and Victoria Smurfit with guest stars Greg Wise, Claire Bloom, David Calder, Gemma Jones, Michael Fassbender, and Michael Brandon.

DVD special features include a 46-minute behind-the-scenes documentary with cast and crew interviews, and biography of creator Lynda La Plante.

Closed Captioning courtesy of Acorn Media.

Saving the rainforest is a dangerous mission.

At the mouth of the Amazon River, a murder trial is taking place. The victim – Sister Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old Catholic nun from Dayton, Ohio – was shot six times at point plank range.

The events that led to her death, and the trials that follow, reveal the larger battle being fought for the future of the rainforest.

With unprecedented access to both sides of the conflict, this gripping documentary follows the real-life drama at the trials of Dorothy’s killers, while exploring the conflicts in the Amazon that led to that fateful day.

Bonus features: Update; Photos; Film Notes & more. Original song written and performed by Grammy-nominated Brazilian singer/songwriter Bebel Gilberto.

As seen on HBO.

In English and Portuguese with English subtitles.

Closed Captioned.

Detective Tommy Murphy has nothing left to lose. Guilt-ridden over the death of his young daughter, who was slain by the IRA, he flees to London to work undercover for the Metropolitan Police. Hardheaded, hard-drinking, brash, and brooding, Murphy is down on his luck. But he still has more than a bit of the old Irish charm, flashing quick with and a roguish grin.

James Nesbitt is absolutely brilliant in a role created especially for him by novelist Colin Bateman. Murphy accepts the most dangerous assignments and delves into London’s criminal underside – drugs, blackmail, murder – assisted by DI Annie Guthrie (Claudia Harrison), his sexy, savvy boss.

Closed Captioned courtesy of Acorn Media.

In 24 hours, forty-something professor Jon will be getting married to a student half his age. But before he can make it to the ceremony, he’ll have to deal with a massive debt to his mother-in-law-to-be, his extremely drunk best man, the logistics of a remote Icelandic island, an increasingly hostile reverend, and the guilt-ridden memory of his emotionally unstable first wife. Can love survive one final night under the midnight sun or is the road to happiness paved with blissful ignorance? Hilmir Snair Gudnason stars in this internationally acclaimed comedy/drama from writer/director Baltasar Kormakur.

Special feature: Trailer.

Icelandic with English and Spanish subtitles.

Many things have gone missing in this world: Amelia Earhart, D.B. Cooper, the Olmec civilization, Jeff Tremaine's waistline, even the whole continent of Atlantis. Most important and culturally relevant, though, is a big mess of jackass segments that had apparently slipped through a crack in Mianus and never found a home on any of the DVD releases for the classic MTV television series. The “Self Defense Test,” “Stun Collar,” “Unicycle Poo Barf,” “Fast Food Football,” “Roller Jump,” and “Satan vs. God” (in its original long ass-kicking form!) are just some of the absurd gold that what was once lost but now is found, not to mention all the original show opens, credit montages, and a bunch of other bonus footage that was never shown on television—or wasn’t allowed to be shown—featuring Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn, Preston Lacy, Wee-Man, Danger Ehren, and Dave England in their earliest years of basic cable fame and notoriety.

Filmed entirely on location in Hawaii, the show followed Jack Lord as he played Steve McGarrett, head of an elite state police unit investigating "organized crime, murder, assassination attempts, foreign agents, felonies of every type." James MacArthur played his second-in-command Danny ("Danno") Williams, with local actors playing members of the Five-O team.

NUMB3RS is a drama about an FBI agent who recruits his mathematical-genius brother to help the Bureau solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles. The two brothers take on the most confounding criminal cases from a very distinctive perspective. Inspired by actual events, the series depicts how the confluence of police work and mathematics provides unexpected revelations and answers to the most perplexing criminal questions.

Handsome, fun loving, private eye, Dan Tanna, drives around Las Vegas in his vintage Thunderbird solving private cases but is also on retainer to a wealthy casino owner to keep crime out of his hotels. He is helped by his smart and sexy assistant, a sexy and not too smart chorus girl who takes messages for him, and his enthusiastic, yet inept, legman.