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The Most Beautiful Show Brought to Cable Cancelled....So Sad....
This is a sweetly beautiful show filled with a very complex purity. It was one of my favorite shows. (I am extremely disappointed to see that it was cancelled this month.) In any case, Laura Dern is just superb in her complexity and "cuteness factor". And Mike White, and all the rest of the cast, along with the entire production, are just genius. So very sad to see it cancelled.....But thank you HBO for bringing us this TRUE gift for the two seasons it was on. I am definitely buying the DVD's now.....

A New Pilgrim's Progress
What can an everyday person do to help change the world? Enlightened Season Two maps the territory in an erratic, sometimes aimless way that eventually delivers its punch through underplaying (yes, even Laura Dern and her mother try underplaying here, to great result) and some script surprises which I dare not reveal in this public space, eve though the show's been cancelled and anyone who cared for it has doubtless subscribed to HBO and gone for it. But anyhow when the end times came for Enlightened I put aside my grudges and totally embraced the ethos of the show, confusing and arbitrary as it is/was.

I should add that some varied acting helped the pace of Season Two. Viewers, some of us, had a hard time with Laura Dern's continual swing between relentless optimism and Nazimova-like gloom, which occurred in every episode; one wanted to reach out and counsel her, Amy Jellicoe, don't stop taking your meds just because you saw a flower in your mother's garden. And...

HBO needs to release this on blu-ray
I emailed HBO asking them to please release Enlightened Season 2 on blu-ray. They never responded, which is another slap in the face (the first slap being the cancellation of Enlightened).

Still, the show ends on an okay note instead of one which leaves you hanging (like the finale of Season 1) but Season 1 was released on blu-ray, so why not Season 2?

Is HBO really that stingy that they are only going to release Season 2 on DVD? I don't even buy DVDs anymore.

If ANYONE working for HBO happens to read this...PLEASE tell whoever you need to that fans of the show would like to own both seasons on blu-ray, not just one.

Our show was cancelled. Please, be gentle with us and give us Season 2 on blu-ray. Please.

If you haven't checked out Enlightened yet, I recommend buying Season 1 on blu-ray. I watched Season 1 during a difficult time of my life, and it really picked me up and touched me. I'm sad to see it end, but both Season 1 and...

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Bill Engvall's All Stars of Country Comedy

Love Bill and Henry Cho; wish they were featured more!
This video was a great way to meet comedians that we were unfamiliar with. We love Bill Engvall's brand of humor, but were bored with most of the other comedians, until Henry Cho stepped into the spot light. Afterward we watched a Henry Cho video that we'd both give five stars to.

Bill And Compony
Not Bad , but a collection of older matrieal...all good but all stuff i'd heard before.

A good addtion to the overall collection



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Dear Governor Cuomo

Amazing and Informative
I loved this documentary about the event that called for Governor Cuomo to keep the moratorium on fracking in NY. I knew almost nothing about fracking before the start of this documentary, and it still kept me entertained the entire time. If you're looking for a good way to spend some time, watch this movie.





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The Hot Spot / Killing Me Softly [Blu-ray]

Decent but completely barebones, no subtitles.
Overall decent transfer, but menu too barebones and no subtitles for non native english speaking people. Maybe next time?
Price is very reasonable.

Intersting 90's noir
These two movies are basically suspense / noir / very sexy but not too erotic flicks 90's style.
The Hot Spot is a very good cross between Postman Ring Twice and Body Heat but the moral; standard but not totally predictable.

Killing Me Softly is a surprising movie; is looks like thriller but it is really something else; better not spoil.

None of them are great movies but deserve a new look. The only regret are that are both "R' versions and I know there unrated versions around.

Movie not full BD quality
I was glad when these two great movies arrived but was sorry to see flecks and spots during credits from wear to original film stock on The Hot Spot. I expected more from a BluRay, but if you like these two movies and don't own, good addition to collection.

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The Damned

A French Post-War Thriller From 1947: Had the Potential To Be A Claustrophobic Classic, But Left Me Largely Uninvolved
Of all the recent releases on the DVD/Blu-ray market, I was particularly excited to catch the debut of "The Damned" by French filmmaker René Clément. Clément was one of the strongest post-WWII era directors to emerge from France with a resume that included such fantastic classics as "Forbidden Games" and "Purple Noon" (both of which I own). I had never heard of the "The Damned," but I was eager to experience the 1947 wartime thriller. Despite my enthusiasm, however, the movie never really connected with me. It is a serviceable entertainment, to be sure, but I found its shifting narrative perspective a bit awkward. Ostensibly the story is told from the vantage point of a French doctor co-opted onto an enemy sub. At times, he is the film's narrator which can provide a claustrophobic and harrowing effect as he tries to figure out what is going on. Many more times, though, the screenplay simply abandons this viewpoint whenever convenient for the story. More...

What Happens When "Das Boot" Collides with "Huis Clos"
This film grows on you...or possibly more accurately, closes in on you. It is the intense claustrophobia in the quarters of a submarine - brilliantly filmed in black and white, that is unforgettable. So the more I think about it, the more I like the movie.

The movie is clearly influenced by the short masterpiece of Jean Paul Sartre's "No Exit" (French translation - Huis Clos) in which a group of people who can't stand each other are forced to live in close quarters with no exit. They are in Hell. This unsavory collection of Nazis and Nazi sympathizers boards the U-Boat in Olso to escape from the Allies as the war is just about to be lost. Some of the characters are a sadistic SS officer, his young homosexual lover and petty criminal, an Italian industrialist, a Swedish nuclear scientist (and his unwilling 17 year old daughter), a Nazi general, his mistress, and a French businessman. However, each individual has his or her own selfish agenda. When the submarine boat...

Fine piece of film history
Beautifully photographed in black and white. Not Bergman or Wells, but quite a pleasure. The story is very interesting and the acting is sufficient. If you like old black and white films by excellent directors, this may be for you. Also I happen to like films that explore Nazi thinking and the interplay between the fanatics and the people who just get dragged into the mess. So this one hit the spot, though there are others that I prefer.

The extra features were very interesting. The discussions about the director gave a take on French cinema and the director's problems with the New Wave enthusiasms were especially interesting and certainly for anyone interested in film history. The narration by film experts over the film itself was light, but much, much better than the average insulting c**p of stars and directors joking around and reminiscing.

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Reality [Blu-ray]

Big Brother Italian Style!
Set in Naples we meet Luciano (Aniello Arena) who is a fishmonger in one of the City's beautiful piazzas. He is happily married with adoring children and as an extended family aswell as a network of supporting friends. He and his wife Maria (Loredana Simioli) also pull scams in order to bolster their income. They have a great line going on with robotic kitchen aids. Then so called `reality' TV show `Big Brother' comes to town for auditions. Everyone knows `Enzo' who won the previous year and is now in demand simply for being famous, weddings, bah mitzvahs, anything.

Well Luciano's daughter asks him to audition as he is always such a laugh at family gatherings and so he goes ahead. Then he gets asked to go to Rome for the interview and he sort of knows its a foregone conclusion that he will get in. He tells everyone and everyone in turn starts rooting for him. With the inevitable three month filming, he then thinks about creating a whole new life and binning the old one;...

A mad satire on celebrity/reality entertainment
Reality is the newest film by Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, the auteur behind 2008's Gomorrah. While that film focused on the criminal underworld of Naples, this follows the story of Luciano and his ambitions to appear on the reality television program Big Brother. Luciano is a wild character, always playing a role, always wanting to be seen, to be the center of a crowd. But when Big Brother has open casting near him, and his family prods him, he decides to audition.

He doesn't initially make it onto the show, but he is convinced that the audition continues, and believes that visitors to his fish stand might be secret scouts from the tv channel, checking to see if he is worthy of joining the cast. The borders of his day to day reality begin to fray, and a rich hopeful fantasy is developed wherein he might, if he is generous and good, eventually be chosen to be an Italian idol.

The film was initially described as a comedy, but I found it to be much darker than...

A marvelous - and darkly unsettling - tale of 'reality'
Matteo Garrone's Reality - winner of the Grand Prix award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival - is a marvelous piece of work. It is also, however, difficult to describe. The trailers for Reality, in my opinion, tend to give the wrong impression, that it is a comedy or a satirical send-up of reality shows. But while there are comedic moments in the film, particularly in the earlier parts, as the story progresses it draws you deeper and deeper into some dark territory, but it does it so gradually and seductively that even as your feelings of unease begin to rise, you cannot bring yourself to look away. The closest comparison I can make is to think of it as a combination of a dark twin-piece to 1998's The Truman Show, except that here the protagonist is outside looking in, and Josef von Sternberg's 1930 masterpiece The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel).

Set in the current day, Luciano (Aneillo Arena) is a likeable everyday guy in Naples. He has a good life, a loving family, and while...

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Southland: The Complete Fifth and Final Season

cancelled. Unbelievable!
RIP to a GREAT show. It seems that the shallow shows linger while the Great quality shows get cancelled.
Enough said.

Excellent !
One of the very best TV shows I have ever seen. Rivoting edge of the seat excitement and action. I started watching Southland just to satify my curiosity. One episode and I'm hooked. I have yet to watch any episode I didn't like. I will continue watching this series for as long as it plays. Fantastic action throughout the entire show. Southland, you have a new fan.

In awe of this show from day one.
This is no doubt one of the very best cop shows that will ever grace us with its presence. The cast and crew are the best around. From their finished product to what we see on tv to the fantastic way they interact with us online and in person. I can't even find the words to describe it. You just have to trust. Cudlitz gives the performance of his life in "Chaos". I will never forget it. If it doesn't get nominated THAT will be a crime.

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