Brett Ratner's supernatural romantic comedy The Family Man comes to DVD with a widescreen anamorphic transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Closed-captioned English soundtracks are rendered in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, while a French soundtrack has been recorded in Dolby Digital Surround. There are no subtitles on this release. The abundant supplemental materials include a commentary track featuring the director and the screenwriters, a second commentary track with producer Marc Abraham, a commentary concerning the music by Danny Elfman, deleted scenes, outtakes, a making-of featurette, production notes, cast filmographies, a choose your own fate game, and a music video for Seal's "This Could Be Heaven." Whatever one thinks of the movie, this disc offers a great deal of extras in addition to excellent sound and picture quality.
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
The underdog has her day in the 2001 comedy Legally Blonde. MGM has done a very good job on this 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, making sure that the pastel colors and flesh tones are bright and bold. A near-perfect transfer, Legally Blonde sparkles while having no edge enhancement, shimmer, or digital artifacting present anywhere during the film. Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 (as well as Dolby 2.0 in Spanish and French). Directional effects are utilized mainly during scenes that feature rock or pop songs playing over different visual montages. Overall dialogue, music, and effects are all clear of any distortion or hiss. Also included on this disc are English, French, and Spanish subtitles. Legally Blonde features some well-produced extra materials for viewers to peruse through. Starting off the supplements are two commentary tracks: one by director Robert Luketic, producer Mark Platt, and actress Reese Witherspoon; and the second by various crew members and writers. Both of these tracks are very informative and fun, especially the first track with Reese Witherspoon joking around about her mammoth hair changes. To compliment these commentary tracks is a "Trivia Tack" that includes information bubbles on the film that can be played while the movie is running. Two featurettes are included, "Inside Legally Blonde" and "The Hair That Ate Hollywood," and both include interviews with both cast and crew discussing their thoughts and ideas on the final film. Finally, there are eight deleted scenes (with introductions by the director) that run about 15 minutes long, a music video by singer Hoku, and a theatrical trailer for Legally Blonde and the DVD release of The Princess Bride. All in all Legally Blonde is a great disc from MGM and is acquitted of all charges against it.
Customer Rating
4
Pretty Good Movie
on October 17, 2008
Posted by: CallawayMan
from Grand Forks, ND
This movie shows that you can't read a book by the cover, or a girl by the way she looks.
Roger Spottiswoode directs Tom Hanks and a dog in the comedy Turner & Hooch, which comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Stereo. There are neither subtitles nor closed-captions on this release. There are no supplemental materials of any consequence, marking this is a sub-par release from Disney/Buena Vista.
Customer Rating
4
Good Movie
on October 17, 2008
Posted by: CallawayMan
from Grand Forks, ND
A good movie about how well a man and his dog work together.
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
One would expect Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg's phenomenally successful dinosaur adventure, to be an almost flawless DVD, and this Universal edition is generally very satisfying. The picture quality is certainly outstanding, bringing out Spielberg's use of color and detail perfectly, while the widescreen format ensures that the dinosaurs are no less terrifying at home than in the cinema. The Dolby 5.1 sound (a DTS edition is also available) is better still, with every roar and rumble bellowing out in crystal clarity. This DVD has clearly been designed with love and attention; even the menu screen is an amazing work of CGI art. Amongst the huge range of features are standard fare such as production notes, biographies, and trailers for Jurassic Park: The Lost World and Jurassic Park III (the latter is totally unrevealing). Footage of early pre-production meetings illustrate Spielberg's desire to make the dinosaurs as frightening as possible, while "Raptors In the Kitchen" shows how Phil Tippett's animatics technique helped to shape the look of the film before CGI was introduced into the equation. A messy but interesting storyboards section includes an omitted scene and the original ending for the film, and the "Foley Artists" feature provides fascinating insight into how the film got some of its Oscar-winning sound. Obviously this DVD will be popular with kids, and it is at kids that the fun and quite thorough "Dinosaur Encyclopaedia" is aimed. The location scouting footage, DVD-ROM features, and production photographs are all moderately interesting, but the best of the extra features is probably "The Making of Jurassic Park." Fifty minutes long and narrated by James Earl Jones, this is a detailed and authoritative documentary, although it does concentrate almost solely on the special effects side of the film, even incorporating footage of the original puppet dinosaurs before Spielberg opted for full-blown CGI creations. The glaring absence from this disc is a commentary by Spielberg himself, which would surely have been revealing, and would have made it an exceptional rather than very good DVD. Nevertheless, Jurassic Park fans will probably be delighted to have this edition in their home libraries.
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
Audiences just couldn't get enough of the adorable talking baby (voiced by Bruce Willis) in Look Whose Talking, and this time around the little guy gets a sister (voiced by Roseanne) in Columbia/Tri -Star Home Video's release of Look Who's Talking Too. Presented in both standard 1.33:1 pan-and-scan and 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, this release also offers closed-captioned English Dolby Digital Surround audio in addition to optional Spanish, French and Portuguese Dolby Digital Stereo audio selections. Also featuring optional English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean and Thai subtitles, extra features include bonus trailers and talent files.
Customer Rating
4
Funny
on October 15, 2008
Posted by: CallawayMan
from Grand Forks, ND
This is a funny movie. Sometimes parents wish little kids could talk.
Yes!! It is very much worth it. They make your tv look the very best that it can in your setting. I would recommend anyone doing this with a tv 42" or larger.