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- Review count7
- Helpfulness votes1
- First reviewNovember 30, 2015
- Last reviewMay 5, 2017
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating3.6
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Travis's Reviews
![Swimmin' Pools, Movie Stars... [CD]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5581/5581235_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
Dwight Yoakam Is Still an Interesting Artist
on May 5, 2017
Posted by: Travis
Verified Purchase:Yes
One of the things I appreciate about Dwight Yoakam as an artist is that when he puts together an album, it's an album, not a collection of ready-made radio singles with filler. He has an idea, sometimes more than one, that he explores with each new work. This time around, it was to revisit selections from his previous works through the filter of bluegrass arrangements.
The "new take on old songs" conceit isn't particularly original, but I love that here again is an illustration of Dwight the innovator. The album opens with a new take on "What I Don't Know", an anthem of glorified misogyny and violent jealousy that was an album track way back on his third album, 1988's "Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room". At first it seems an unlikely contender to even make the roster of songs to be revisited here, let alone to open the album.
But "What I Don't Know" was always very much in the tradition of the dark Appalachian murder ballad subgenre, which traces its roots back to the hills of Ireland and moors of Scotland. It's a troubling musical history, certainly, and I think part of my problem with the original recording of the song was that it was too straightforward. The murder ballad needs a certain air of theatricality, which wasn't there in '88.
This time around, though, there's a furor created by the mandolins played by Adam Steffey and Jon Randall Stewart that makes "What I Don't Know" feel appropriately surreal. Yoakam's vocals are truly menacing and here he's created as threatening a villain in just 2:52 as he has in entire movies.
Still, including the song is one thing; opening the album with it is another. Why risk alienating listeners by making us that uncomfortable as soon as we start playing the album? The answer, I'm certain, is that art shouldn't necessarily *be* comfortable. Yoakam's discography consists of a few hundred songs by now. Thematically, what ties together the ones chosen for the bluegrass treatment here is rejection; fear of it, anxiety over it, recovering from it. "What I Don't Know", unsettling as it is, serves as a thesis statement of sorts. True, any of the other songs here could alternately have performed the same function, but I don't think they would have so clearly set quite the same tone for the album.
When other artists revisit their catalogs with a new thematic approach (bluegrass, for instance), it's often little more than their earlier songs playing dress-up. With Dwight Yoakam, though, it's a legitimate artistic exploration. How do the new arrangements change our relationships with once-familiar songs? How does the album sequencing change their relationships with one another? Few other artists make me wonder about these things the way Dwight Yoakam does. It's been 31 years since he caught my attention with "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc." and I love that he's still holding my attention all these years and albums later.
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Star Trek Beyond [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray/DVD] [SteelBook] [Only @ Best Buy] [2016]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5450/5450018_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
Satisfying Celebration of the Spirit of Star Trek
on December 7, 2016
Posted by: Travis
Verified Purchase:Yes
STAR TREK BEYOND's thesis is that "there is strength in unity", one of the central tenets of the vaunted "Roddenberry vision" upon which the entire franchise was built. The film asks whether that vision is still believable 50 years later, or if we find it too naive given the darkness of our own real world. Not surprisingly, the film argues that those values do still matter. I don't know about everyone else, but I certainly needed to have that belief validated throughout 2016, as tumultuous and as increasingly disturbing a year as it turned out to be.
It's fashionable among fans to decry the reboot series of movies as "pandering to the masses" and "not 'real' Star Trek" because they're so action-oriented. I've been a card-carryin' Trekker for a quarter century now, and I don't buy that. The original series did all kinds of "pandering" to the action-thirsty TV audiences of the late 60's (a fact poked fun at in this film's opening teaser sequence). "But...motorbike! Beastie Boys!" Yeah, and the TNG movies had an ATV and Steppenwolf. (Don't act like you didn't smile and bob your head when Zefram Cochrane started playing "Magic Carpet Ride".)
As for the Blu-ray, its bonus features do a fine job surveying the production from conception to completion, but they feel perfunctory overall. For a viewer like me who's watched hundreds of DVD and Blu-ray bonus features over the years, it'll feel fairly routine. But I'm also reminded that it was the behind-the-scenes stuff in things like the STAR TREK 25TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL, FROM "STAR WARS" TO "JEDI": THE MAKING OF A SAGA, and THE MAKING OF "JURASSIC PARK" that first got me interested in such stuff in the first place, and I think the adolescent that I was then would dig the STAR TREK BEYOND bonus content just as much as he enjoyed those VHS tapes once upon a time.
As for the Best Buy-exclusive SteelBook, I have to admit that I was originally hoping for the Jaylah design that was used on an internationally released SteelBook. That said, once I saw this one in person, I found myself increasingly digging it. The art is from a poster that paid homage to the STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE release poster from 1979, and to be honest, I think it looks cooler on the surface of a SteelBook than it does on paper.
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Star Wars: The Force Awakens [SteelBook] [Blu-ray/DVD] [Includes Digital Copy] [Only @ Best Buy] [2015]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4942/4942301_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
Fun Movie, Decent Bonus Features, Shiny SteelBook
on April 8, 2016
Posted by: Travis
Verified Purchase:Yes
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS isn't particularly innovative, but to its credit, it isn't about trying to reinvent the wheel. It's about reminding us that the wheel still goes round, and that we like going round. The greatest strength of the movie is how accessible it is to newcomers. Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron, Maz Kanata, and BB-8 are all interesting and entertaining.
The original STAR WARS movie treated its universe's backstory as something that everyone in-story already knew about, and that we could glean here and there as needed. The way that existing characters are presented in THE FORCE AWAKENS allows for the same thing. If you know who Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia are, great; the movie does right by all three. But if you don't, all that matters is that Rey and Finn have only ever even heard of these people, either.
As for the Blu-ray, the bonus features are solid though they feel less than comprehensive. The full documentary, "SECRETS OF 'THE FORCE AWAKENS': A CINEMATIC JOURNEY", is a mostly satisfying survey of the film's production, from the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney all the way up to postproduction visual effects.
Most of the rest of the supplements really feel like they ought to have been included in their entirety in the doc itself; most are represented in abridged form there. Still, they do stand alone nicely and I can appreciate the balance between covering these subjects more attentively, and keeping the making-of doc moving along.
Note that there are six deleted scenes included here, but if you redeem the Disney Movies Anywhere Digital HD code, you'll have access to a seventh, "TUNNEL STANDOFF", which is easily the most entertaining of the lot! It's clearly incomplete, as it lacks any kind of resolution, but Harrison Ford and John Boyega had such delightful chemistry that it's worth the 59 seconds to watch.
Lastly, the Best Buy exclusive SteelBook. To be honest, I was underwhelmed by the very simplistic aesthetic of Kylo Ren on the front and Captain Phasma on the back, though it's growing on me. I do appreciate that the art under the trays inside the package is the same image (more or less) that appears under the CD package tray of the soundtrack album, of the MILLENNIUM FALCON confronting two TIE Fighters.
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Spectre [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray] [SteelBook] [2015]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4817/4817102_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Travis
Verified Purchase:Yes
The movie itself has been polarizing. I'll only say that there are things I like about it (cast; settings, esp. Day of the Dead opening; cinematography; production design; costumes) and things that didn't work (unnecessary contrivances about the villain, entirely too many nods to previous Bond movies).
As for the Blu-ray release at hand, the A/V quality is predictably terrific. The extras are surprisingly underwhelming. Bond has been one franchise that has traditionally given us hours upon hours of bonus content, and "SPECTRE" is outright paltry.
The 20:12 featurette on the opening sequence is nice, covering how each department worked to create the Day of the Dead. Unfortunately, that's all we really get. The Video Blogs are the same ones that were uploaded by the official 007 account to YouTube in the months leading up to the movie's opening. These are only a minute or two apiece in duration, so they're pretty superficial. The only other features are a still gallery (I hate those), and the three trailers that were released for the movie (loved those!).
As for the Best Buy-exclusive SteelBook packaging, I gotta say, I love it. That initial teaser poster art image that was used here thrilled me when it was first released. It's spiffier in person than the ad art suggests.
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Spectre [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] [CD]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4630/4630904_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Travis
Verified Purchase:Yes
I have to say, I was terribly disappointed by Thomas Newman's "SPECTRE" score. The "Day of the Dead" festival music is terrific, but otherwise I found this CD to be monotonous and, frankly, boring - the one thing that James Bond should never be. One track bleeds into the next, until eventually the droning comes to an end.
It's fine for a Bond soundtrack to not be in the John Barry mold; George Harrison's "Live and Let Die" and Marvin Hamlisch's "The Spy Who Loved Me" are both terrific examples of other ways to do Bond. Eric Serra's "GoldenEye" is often cited as a Bond soundtrack outside the Barry vain that didn't work, but I actually dig it. But this "SPECTRE" score by Newman? It lacks presence or personality.
The one curiosity is the instrumental version of Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall". I also bought the CD single of that song, which includes the instrumental version. The difference is that on Smith's CD single, I can easily hear his vocals on the title line; they're entirely absent from the version included on this soundtrack CD. Why the difference, I can't even guess, but I do appreciate the offering here.
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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![Jurassic Park III [Includes Digital Copy] [UltraViolet] [Blu-ray] [2001]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/6991/6991204_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
4-Star Blu-ray for a 3-Star Movie
on November 30, 2015
Posted by: Travis
Verified Purchase:Yes
One of the strengths of "Jurassic Park III" as a movie is that there's no real fat to be trimmed. Its chief deficiency, though, is that it's so lean that it's really just a construction of set pieces without much in the way of characterization. Even the dialog isn't as sharp as in the others in its series; everything is just sort of perfunctory.
This Blu-ray Disc is pretty comprehensive, though, and ought to satisfy fans of the film. Because this entry in the series wasn't directed by Spielberg, it actually has a commentary track (by the film's special effects team, no less, making it a bit of a curiosity for behind-the-scenes enthusiasts). Bonus features from its original DVD release, including content originally exclusive to the Jurassic Park Trilogy DVD box set, is all present, much of which focuses on the advancements in paleontology during the four years between "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic Park III".
This Blu-ray edition also includes Digital HD, which can be convenient.
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![The Lost World: Jurassic Park [Includes Digital Copy] [UltraViolet] [Blu-ray] [1997]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/6990/6990021_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
Solid Blu-ray for Average Movie
on November 30, 2015
Posted by: Travis
Verified Purchase:Yes
It's been 18 years since "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" opened in theaters and I STILL don't quite know how I feel about it. It wasn't until I finally saw the 1925 silent film, "The Lost World", that I understood why Spielberg jettisoned Crichton's novel and what he was trying to do instead. It sort of works, I suppose.
As for this Blu-ray edition, they've done a terrific job bringing over bonus features from previous DVD editions, including content originally only available in the Jurassic Park Trilogy DVD box set. It's a shame Spielberg doesn't record commentary tracks, because that's about the only thing this Blu-ray could be accused of missing!
The inclusion of Digital HD is also handy. I'm less likely to stream this than I am to simply pop in the Blu-ray Disc, but it's nice to have redundancy just the same!
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
My Best Buy number: 2648931623
I would recommend this to a friend!
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