Rescue Me: The Complete Fourth Season Review

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(More customer reviews)Haunted firefighter Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) knows about tragedy all too well. He doesn't quite remember what happened at the beach-house at the end of the previous season of FX's Rescue Me, but all he does know is that he is under investigation, while Sheila (Callie Thorne) picks up the pieces. To make things more hectic, Tommy and his estranged wife Janet (Andrea Roth) are taking care of the new baby, that may be Tommy's or may be his late brother's (Dean Winters). Tommy's concerns over the baby's safety come into question as well, which leads to a decision that could forever destroy any repairs made to his marriage with Janet. In the meantime, Chief Reilly (Jack McGee) gets worse news; Sean (Steven Pasquale) starts to grow a pair in regards to his new marriage to Maggie (Tatum O'Neal) and learns a big secret about Probie Mike (Michael Lombardi) in one of the series' funniest and shocking moments; Kenny's (John Scurti) relationship with an ex-nun takes a downward turn; Franco (Daniel Sunjata) has a big decision to make while trying to get back his daughter from Alicia (Susan Sarandon); Tommy's daughter Colleen (Natalie Distler) starts to rebel in a big way; and a new recruit (Larenz Tate) makes an impact on the group. While the drama and character development was high in the fourth season of Rescue Me, there was just something about this season that didn't feel all that compelling compared to what has been done on the series before. Also, there was a bit of an uneven feel with a number of already established characters (particularly Probie Mike), but despite the flaws, the fourth season of Rescue Me is still a more than solid season of the series. The season concludes on a bit of a down note, but seeds have been planted for some big time developments to come. All in all, Rescue Me continues to entertain and even impress, and here's hoping that there's more drama to come from Leary and company.

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An arson investigation following the beach house fire targets Tommy, Janet worries that her new baby doesn't like her, Colleen runs away from home, a not guilty verdict is delivered in Uncle Teddy's manslaughter trial, Jerry commits suicide, the crew from 62 Truck is savaged in the press for not being able to save seven children from dying in a tragic fire - it's another season of challenge and turbulence for Tommy and the guys.

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Mary and Max (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Mary and Max is an independent claymation flick from Australia, with a darkly comic theme about a lonely and misunderstood 8-year-old girl who strikes up an unlikely and disturbing correspondence and friendship with a 48-year-old overweight depressive male diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. While that sounds unlikely enough as a topic for an animated film, what was truly unexpected was the moving power of its simple message, achieved without resorting to sentimentalism or cliche.
The film, apparently based on a true story, plays like Wallace and Gromit conceived by Oliver Sacks and imagined by David Lynch and Robert Crumb. The animated characters, who tend to be overweight with exaggerated melancholy expressions, are nevertheless enormously expressive - and the film seamlessly shifts from the muted colors of the rundown Australian suburb where Mary lives to the expressive black and white of Max's New York City.
Mary (Toni Collette) is a curious and lonely girl, whose father is unavailable and whose mother is an alcoholic kleptomaniac and whose neighbors are each in their own way inscrutable. Confronted by questions the adults around her are unwilling to answer, she selects Max's name at random from an American phonebook and writes an inquisitive letter to a complete stranger. Initially thrown for a loop by this unexpected query, Max detects a kindred spirit and responds to her letter with complete sincerity. So begins a peculiar correspondence, fraught throughout with misunderstanding but culminating in a lifelong friendship that is able to carry them both through a great deal of personal misfortune and tragedy.
The voice of Phillip Seymour Hoffman invests the character of Max with a deeply sincere confusion about the peculiar games that people play. A card carrying communist and atheist, he nevertheless wears the skullcap he wore as a child, when his mother taught him babies came from egg-laying rabbis. He is honest to a fault, incapable of saying the kinds of things people like to hear; his imaginary friend, a psychiatrist by the name of Mr. Ravioli, stopped speaking to him after his real psychiatrist convinced him he was no longer necessary.
Mary and Max was dark and tender and strange and disconcerting and lovely. Its simple theme, conveyed lightly and through dark circumstance, is captured in a concluding quotation by Ethel Mumford: "God gave us relatives. Thank God we can choose our friends."

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From Academy Award® winning writer/director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs (HARVEY KRUMPET) comes the hilarious and moving new claymated feature film about the pen-pal relationship between two very different people: Mary Daisy Dinkle (voiced by Oscar® nominee Toni Collette) is a lonely 8-year-old in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Max Jerry Horovitz (Oscar® winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is an obese 44-year-old with Asperger s Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City. Over the course of 20 years and 2 continents, their unusual journey of friendship will explore autism, taxidermy, alcoholism, where babies come from, kleptomania, sexual differences, trust, copulating dogs, religious differences, agoraphobia and more of life s big and little surprises.

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Potty Power - For Boys & Girls Review

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(More customer reviews)I have to say I was throughly impressed with this video the first (and subsequent) times my daughter watched it. I do agree with a previous viewer that it is kinda geared toward girls, with dainty little songs and a princess story at the end.
My daughter is just over 2 years and we've run headlong into negativism in our attempts to potty train. She knows EXACTLY what we want her to do when we sit her on the potty, and blatently refuses to do so (to the point of painfully holding in both "number 1" and "number 2"). In desperation, I ordered this video based on the positive reviews.
I have to say she has loved it FAR more than any books (which she has been mildly interested in), which makes sense since 2-year-olds are much more "sucked in" to the TV than a book. In fact, I think creating a DVD on this subject was an ingenious idea! She watched it once the day it came, and in the week following, she completely undressed herself 3 times on a whim (and to my complete surprise) and sat on her potty chair. This was without me even mentioning it - just the sight of the chair triggered her enthusiasm. She didn't go, but I figure getting her interested and willing to go alone is a BIG start! When she watched it again, she insisted on it three times in a row before declaring it was time for Nemo. :)
The kids in the video are about 3 years old, which I think is perfect because my daughter still considers them "equals" but they can talk and sit on the potty well. The narrator is a pretty young woman with bright eyes that will easily attract any child. Although they primarily talk about kids going potty on a potty chair, they do also show video of kids sitting on a toilet. Some of the discussion might be a little advanced for my daughter, but all the video of real kids (no animation) using the potty chair has had powerful influence.
Here's a quick run-down of things in this 30 minute video:
- The narrator defines the difference between being a baby and a "big kid" with a little game that shows what babies do (sleep in a crib, spoon-fed by Dad, wears diapers, etc) and what a big kid does (swings, stacks blocks, etc).
- Sings a song about all the things a "big kid" can do by him/herself (sleep in a bed, eat ice cream, kick a ball, etc) and says that going potty by yourself is just one more thing big kids do.
- The definition of "pee" and "poop" (terms they use) as being made by the body. Babies go in their diaper and "big kids" and grownups go in the potty (the grown ups in a toilet).
- Introduces the idea of the potty chair (versus the toilet) and explains that they come in different shapes and sizes. Also introduces what toilet paper does - wiping yourself is just like when mom and dad wipe a baby with wet wipes.
- Sings a song about what you can do while you're sitting on the potty for awhile - read, sing, play with a toy. I really liked this part because it showed my daughter that she'll just spend some time sitting for awhile as part of her training.
- Sings a song about wiping afterward - the children wipe a large teddy bear (front to back!) to illustrate since they obviously can't show the children actually doing it to themselves.
- Sings a song about washing your hands, and says that you should scrub with soap and water for about 20 seconds, or as long as it takes to sing Twinkle Twinkle little star. I LOVE this idea!
- Mentions that learning to use the potty isn't an over-night thing, but that once you do, you've got POTTY POWER!!!
- There is a princess story at the end that they could easily have left off as far as my daughter is concerned, but I would imagine a 3 or 4 year old girl (I'm thinking of my nieces) would LOVE the idea of becoming a princess with "royal underwear" after learing to potty. I think the purpose of the princess story is to establish how great it is to get to wear underwear after you've got Potty Power.
The songs are simple and catchy, and I sing them to my daughter sometimes throughout the day (usually because they are - unfortunately - stuck in my head). Obviously this video isn't going to replace parental training, but repetative viewing along with lots of book reading and a general "toilet training" mindset throughout the day is going to be a big help!

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POTTY POWER - DVD Movie

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Temple Grandin (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)My husband and I watched this movie last night for the first time. We are as different as night and day but this movie had both of us riveted from beginning to end. It opens up the door to a wealth of insight on autism. Once I finished the movie I did some internet research on Temple Grandin and was blown away at how one person's life experiences can have such an impact in the world. I am so excited to share this movie with my children. It will be one more teaching tool to show them how important it is to embrace all people simply because they are people. As Temple's mother is quoted in the movie as saying, "She is different, not less." What a great life lesson to pass on to both young and old in this world.

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Based on the writings by its title subject, HBO Films’ Temple Grandin is an engaging portrait of an autistic young woman who became, through timely mentoring and sheer force of will, one of America’s most remarkable success stories.

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