Gorillaz - Phase One - Celebrity Take Down (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)Celebrity Take Down is, at heart, a companion piece to the debut Gorillaz album, offering closure to the first chapter in the band's existence as well as teasers of what's to come and hints of what might have been. Each of the faux-group's first four videos are featured in their entirety, from the still-life anti drama of "Tomorrow Comes Today" to the goofy, horror satire of "Clint Eastwood," and the audio is mixed brilliantly in Dolby 5.1 surround. It really is a whole new experience, taking these videos in with a crisp voice shouting from the front of the room, while the drums hit you from behind and the guitars ring on both sides.
Each video is accompanied by a variety of extras, including early-production versions of the computer graphics used in "19/2000," as well as storyboards and developmental sketches composed for "Rock the House." There's even a full storyboard for an unfinished video, "5/4," that's set to music and fits right in alongside its peers with an offbeat sense of humor and a great, imaginative premise. Rounding out the disc is a vast collection of promotional slicks and sketches of the characters "behind the scenes" at the various music video shoots, interviews with the fictional members of the band, five bizarre short films starring said band members and a lengthy mock-u-mentary about creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. The short films are fun to watch, if just to see more of the characters and Hewlett's visual flair, but lack the substance and dark, self-deprecating humor of the videos, and the documentary is more of the same. The extras are filled to the brim with slapstick comedy and silliness for the sake of being silly, while the videos never seem to force a joke and come off as much more refined and intelligent.
The interface is a little goofy, breaking from the traditional "Play All, Hands Off" nature that dominates today's DVD market. If you ever visited the Gorillaz web site when the band was first starting to take off, this will look very familiar. There's no quick and dirty way to navigate the disc's contents, instead you must navigate between the various rooms of the band members, look for a television screen, open magazine or personal computer, and click on it. You won't know which video you're about to watch or what bonus material you're about to discover until you're already knee-deep in it. It's a clever idea, but I don't know that it works as well on the TV, where people are conditioned to sit and stare, as it did on the monitor, where you're much more familiar with forced interactivity. Some of the allure of the site is missing from this DVD interface, as the developers had to make it obvious which areas were interactive and which weren't, and overall the experience is somewhat disorienting.
Easily enough, this disc is a Gorillaz fan's dream come true. The audio mix and video quality alone are worth a look if you enjoy the band's gimmick in the slightest, which I do, and the attention to every detail of the videos' production is really nice to see. I can live with an underdeveloped interface design and a few out-of-place featurettes.

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The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley - The Case of Thorn Mansion Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a really cute movie. The songs are really cute, and the story-line is interesting for the younger kids.

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Paul McCartney's Get Back World Tour Review

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(More customer reviews)You can't go wrong with any of Paul McCartney's live recordings. Despite what anyone says about Sir Paul's post-Beatles music, when it comes to live performance, the man always gives 100 percent. He's as hard-working a showman as anyone in rock and always holds his own against virtually every live band. The guy cares about what he does, has a great voice, is a solid innovative bassist and one heck of a pianist. I am certain that almost everyone who attended the 1989 live shows filmed for this DVD ranks it as a night they will never forget.
I wish this DVD were longer, because it focuses almost exclusively on Paul's Beatles hits. I know that many people love hearing McCartney sing the Beatles Greatest Hits, but I'd like to hear more of his solo and Wings material. (In concert at the time, McCartney did include a lot of post-1970 material, but little of it is here save for the beautiful 'Put it There,' 'Live and Let Die,' and 'Coming Up.')
My major problem with the DVD comes from Richard Lester's decision to intercut newsfootage throughout many of the songs. 'The Long and Winding Road' is all but ruined by Vietnam imagery, for example, and by the time I reached the end of the DVD I was uncomfortably reminded of the movie version of 'Beatlemania' which used similar tricks. McCartney is the real deal and doesn't need such trickery. And, yes, that's the same Richard Lester who used to direct great popcorn flicks like 'Superman II' and 'The Three Musketeers' not to mention the Beatles own 'Hard Day's Night.' I've no idea why McCartney allowed Lester to ruin sections of this film with his heavy-handed social commentary.
I'm still giving this 4 stars if only because we get the joy of Paul McCartney rediscovering himself in front of a worldwide audience.

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The Backyardigans: Singing Sensation Review

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(More customer reviews)"The Backyardigans: Singing Sensation!" may appeal to some fans who like the show's music, but in the way of Nickelodeon DVD releases, it is nothing special. All this is, really, is a collection of approximately 20 songs from the series put together on a DVD with lyrics displayed on-screen (there is no way to turn these lyrics off.) There are some good songs on this collection, such as "A Pirate Says ARRRR," "Not An Egg Anymore" and "Go, Go, Go." However, given the vast amount of material this series has produced, there is a very good chance that your or kid's favorite song or songs might not be included on this DVD (personally, I think that songs such as the "Flying Rock Song," "Nobody's Bigger Than a Giant" and "W-IOWA" all would have been worthy of inclusion.) The songs are roughly divided into themes - such as sea songs and outer space songs.Here is a list of the songs included-- "A Pirate Says ARRR," "Save the Day," "Sinbad the Sailor," "Ya Gotta Have Pirattitude," "Viking Song," "A Message, A Message," "On Top of the World," "We're Knights, That's Right!," "Not An Egg Anymore," "Everything is Filthy in Filthingham," "Ready for Anything," "Bad Bots," "Can't Stop the Cops," "Intergalactic Garbage Trek," "Front Page News," "Going to Mars," "Riding the Range," "Go, Go, Go," "The Yeti Stomp," "International Super Sky," and "The Lady in Pink."Nice try, Nickelodeon, but this feels like a cheaply produced effort designed to try to lure "Backyardigans" fans. I rate it three to three-and-a-half stars for the quality of the source material only.Closed-Captioning / Subtitles: None (There is no captioning or subtitles for the parts where the characters speak, only the on-screen lyrics.)
Special Features: None, other than promos for other Nickelodeon (formerly branded Nick Jr.) shows and, curiously, for PBSKids's "Super WHY!"
Length: Approximately 36 Minutes
Cost: Too much (but I checked it from the library, so no worries.)

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Madonna Celebration: The Video Collection (1983) Review

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(More customer reviews)Before anyone gets on my case, I HAVE THE DVD and am watching it right now.
Let me start off on a positive note, the DVD set contains 47 videos on 2 DVDs. Some good ones are inexplicably omitted (Dress You Up, Oh Father, Bad Girl, Fever, This Used to Be My Playground, Substitute For Love, Nothing Really Matters, American Life, etc) but there is a lot of good material released here for the first time. The audio is generally excellent. The 5.1 track is not really a 5.1 mix, it is simulated and sounds terrible. Stick with the PCM stereo track, it sounds fantastic.
I won't comment much on the content of the videos. They are some of the most famous and influential music videos ever made. This is classic stuff. With the exception of Justify My Love (see below) all of the videos are uncut.
Now on to the picture quality...what the hell happened here? It's not as horrible as some people have claimed, but it is WAY below standard. There are serious compression artifacts throughout all of the videos. Pixellation, smearing, graininess, blotchy color, blurring, interlacing artifacts. It's all there and it looks bad. I am watching the DVD on an upscaling Blu Ray player on a 52" LCD 1080P television. It won't look as bad on a smaller TV, but it still won't look great. I have honestly seen VHS look better than some of the videos. The Immaculate Collection DVD, which was made from a 19 year old master, looks better.
The problem is that someone made the really, really stupid decision to use single layer DVDs instead of the industry standard dual layer DVDs. I suspect this decision was made late in the process to save a few cents and the program was re-compressed to fit in half the space. There is too much compression and too much picture quality lost. I'll bet the original master was for 2 dual layer DVDs and it probably looked very good. It is hard to believe that anyone at Warner quality control approved the picture quality on these DVDs. Didn't Madonna sign off on a release copy??
I thought it might have something to do with the age of some of the videos, but the most recent ones look just as bad. The brand new Celebration video only looks slightly better than VHS quality. And it is ridiculous that the widescreen videos are not in 16:9 format, even the recent ones filmed in 16:9 HD are in letterboxed 4:3.
There really is no excuse for this to happen, especially from a company as large as Warner and an artist as big as Madonna. Using single layer DVDs could have only saved them a few cents. On a $30 set, that is inexcusable.
I would strongly suggest not buying this DVD until Warner addresses the situation. I think outcry among the fans will (hopefully) cause Warner to do the right thing and release a corrected version on dual layer discs.
UPDATE - One more thing, the video for Justify My Love is CENSORED! This video was widely released uncensored as a video single in 1991 and sold millions of copies. And NOW, 18 years later, it is censored?? Just unbelievable.
Also, the Amazon description claiming the DVD has "unedited and never before seen footage of 'Justify My Love'" is completely false. There is no new footage at all. In fact, you actually see less because of the censorship.
If I could split my rating, it would be 4 stars for content and 1 star for quality.

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2 DVD collection features 47 videos, including unedited and never-before-seen footage of "Justify My Love," "Into The Groove," "Give It 2 Me," and Madonna's new single "Celebration"

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Number Ones (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)1. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
2. Rock With You
3. Billie Jean
4. Beat It
5. Thriller
6. Bad (short version)
7. The Way You Make Me Feel (excludes beginning few minutes)
8. Man In The Mirror
9. Smooth Criminal (fast/blurry version)
10. Dirty Diana
11. Black or White (includes Macaulay Culkin segment but excludes panther segment)
12. You Are Not Alone
13. Earth Song
14. Blood On The Dance Floor (re-edited version)
15. You Rock My World (excludes beginning few minutes)
The very basic packaging tells you that this is a no frills DVD. Many of MJ's best videos are presented and that is all you get. No fancy menu or insert. No live performances, interviews, commercials or still gallery. Nothing. Not even a discography. This doesn't cut it in this day and age of DVD. The videos are great, but this is hardly a difinitive collection. Expecially since all of these (save "You Rock My World") are already available on other discs. And why do video collections keep getting released with shortened or re-edited videos? We want the FULL original video ok! Is that too much to ask?
It's hard to go wrong with an MJ music video and these are all great. But this DVD could have (and should have) been definitie. Instead it's just yet another collection of videos collectors already have.

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Hannah Montana, Vol. 1 - Livin' the Rock Star Life (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been on this earth for thirty-one years and I'm proud to say that I like "Hannah Montana." My daughter is totally captivated by this series and by young Miley Cyrus, who heads up the cast of the show. We already own "Pop Star Profile" and my daughter (and me) watch the series on the Disney Channel together. The show is funny, light, girlishly silly at times and one of the safest shows for youngsters and pre-teens around. Don't let the "safest" comment scare you. This show is full of smart laughs for kids and in-jokes for their parents who know where Miley's dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, came from.
This particular DVD contains four episodes of the series. They are "Money For Nothing, Guilt For Free," "Lilly, Do You Want To Know A Secret," "Miley Get Your Gum," and "I Can't Make You Love Hannah If You Don't." These particular shows revolve around Miley going to great lengths to keep (and in a couple of cases, revealing) her secret life as pop star, Hannah Montana. Fans of "High School Musical" will recognize Corbin Bleu as a reluctant fan of Montana in one episode.
I have to agree with another reviewer that this show's characters have great chemistry on the tube. Cyrus, Emily Osment (Lilly), and Mitchel Musso (Oliver) are believable as best friends. Jason Earles is terribly terrific as Miley's goofy brother, Jackson. The elder Cyrus does his part as well playing a father who thinks he's a lot cooler than he actually is and tries to deal with his daughter growing up.
The extras on the disc are okay. There's a music video for "Best Of Both Worlds," Miley talking about gaining the role of Hannah and following her dreams, and her audition tapes.
Overall, this entire series is perfect for youngsters to watch. Hannah can be silly at times and she even makes some bad choices, but in the end, she suffers the consequences and deals with her problems like a fairly normal pre-teen. She and all of the other kids in the show seem pretty grounded, don't expect everything handed to them, don't dress or act like sluts, and are all-around decent kids. That's rare on TV these days, even in most "family" shows.
In a world where hotel heiresses who proclaim, "That's hot," are applauded for their social status, it's nice to see that a few young ladies still know how to act like real young ladies.
Highly recommended.

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Put your hands together, y'all, for the hottest teen pop sensation to come from Tennessee to Malibu, Miley Stewart, aka . . . Hannah Montana! New on DVD! Watch three of your favorite episodes and one you've never seen before from the smash-hit Disney Channel original series -- plus rockin' exclusive bonus features including a behind-the-scenes look at Miley's world, music videos, and more. Hannah Montana is living the rock star dream, with cool concerts, lots of limos, and a huge closet full of the latest styles. And the best part is, nobody knows that underneath all the glitz 'n' glamour she's simply sweet Miley Stewart. Y'all won't believe all the hilarious things she does to try to keep the biggest celebrity secret in the world from her best friends Lilly and Oliver while navigating the challenges of homework, crushes, and being accepted into the local social scene. It all works out, though, because this chick totally rocks!

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