Enemy at the Door: Series 1

Historical drama that gets to the heart of civilians caught up in war.
"Enemy at the Door" begins in June, 1940, as the English Channel island, Guernsey, received the undesired but expected arrival of German soldiers. The occupying force was established as a doorway into England. It was a political and psychological ploy to gain advantage over the British, who as yet were victorious with the air war over the Channel.

The first few episodes well establish the main characters, the struggle between the nationalities, as well as the sentiments of the individuals involved. Many island locals have mixed feelings about the need for assisting in any way with the occupation force. Some must walk the fine line between helping the Nazi command and looking out for the needs of the island's inhabitants during the occupation. A young rich local, Peter Porteous (Richard Heffer), leans on the defiant side of the line. Island doctor, Philip Martel (Branard Horsfall), reluctantly takes a role on the local committee to work with the enemy command in hopes it...

A Good Addition to the Shelf
"Enemy at the Door," a British television series, was made in the late 1970's, once again for Britain's independent - privately owned - television stations (ITV). It ran for two seasons on ITV, from 1978-1980, and was broadcast in the U.S. on public television. It combines two highly popular genres, period drama and World War II history. Its series 1 now reaches us in a four DVD box set, comprising 13 episodes, running approximately 663 minutes, with special features including historical background. Unfortunately, it does not include subtitles that would be most welcome in a series of this nature, with such varied accents; still, it is possible to follow the action well enough. (Series 2, not yet released, comprises another 13 episodes.)

The series deals with the British Channel Islands that were invaded and occupied by the Nazi German army in June, 1940: Germany thought they would be a good jumping-off point for its planned invasion of the British Isles themselves. We...

Untold story of World War II
This is a fairly well written and acted series regarding the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II. A part of the historical record, mostly forgotten, of a Nazi occupation of British territory that is largely overlooked. I found the series of interest and
look forward to viewing the secord set in the hope that all the character issues, etc. will be resolved.

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Marley and Me (Single-Disc Edition)

Stayed Faithful to the Book
'Marley & Me' is a great adaptation of the novel by Josh Grogan. It kept all the emotional elements as well as the fun. Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson had amazing chemistry together in this heartfelt film. It is more than just a dog movie, surpassing hit dog films such as 'Beethoven,' '101 Dalmations,' and 'Homeward Bound.' This film concentrates on the family and how a dog affected the lives of this family for both good and bad. It's a good representation of a young couple and how they evolve as they have children and move on in life. Along with it, is shows the life cycle of a dog, which is something that rarely gets shown honestly in films. It shows the good, the bad, and the painfully tragic elements of having a dog. The end of the film is very true to the book and I'm glad because it is probably the most important part of the story and it's nice to see it portrayed honestly for fans of the book.
Overall, I think viewers will enjoy this film. Jennifer Aniston is...

Bad Dog Edition for the Fans!
There are quite a bit of extras on the "Bad Dog Edition" that fans of this film will no doubt enjoy exploring.

There is a collection of 19 deleted scenes with optional commentary by director David Frankel. We see John and Jenny go house hunting in Boca Raton. There is more footage of them choosing to adopt Marley. Naturally, there is more of Marley's antics as well.

"Finding Marley" takes a look at the 22 dogs used in the film. One dog in particular had the most screen time. We see how his trainer got him to do various things and it is amazing to see how well trained he is.

"On the Set with Marley: Dog of all Trades" is an "interview" with the dog that played Marley including on the set footage provided by a camera located on the pooch's head.

"Breaking the Golden Rule" features the cast and crew talking about how Marley & Me is not a dog film per se but about the Grogan family. The cast speaks admiringly of each other and, of course, the...

Good if you're looking for something different...but put the kids to bed first.
There is a lot of controversy about this movie....it seems like people either love it or hate it. I'm in between....

I did not see Marley and Me in the theaters but being a dog-lover since I was born, I was interested and borrowed the DVD from my boss a few days ago as my mother wanted to see it as well.

For all you who have heard from lots of angry parents claiming "false advertising" and "deceiving trailers", I'd like to confirm that yes, that is somewhat true. If I had young brothers or sisters or children of my own, who wanted to see a cute and funny family dog movie, "Marely and Me" is not the movie that comes to mind here.

This for two reasons:

One, the movie's focus is on the marriage of a new couple and their struggles through a married life. It doesn't soley focus on the dog, he more so takes a backseat in most of the film, apart from the first hour or so. Children will adore the puppy Marley in the beginning, but their attention...

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The Wiggles Present: Dorothy the Dinosaur

Dorothy the Dinosaur
This video features Dorothy as she reviews her "memory album". It is full of songs and dances as she visits the doctor, takes a dance class and has friends over for tea, ect. Wags, Henry and Captain Feathersword all appear but the traditional wiggles singers do not. This video is a favorite of my three year old daughter and was a great purchase for us.

If you love Dorothy...
If you love the Wiggles characters, especially Dorothy the Dinosaur, this "best of" collection from the first version of the Australian TV series, Dorothy the Dinosaur, is a must have. Fun to watch, hung together with a cute surrounding story, well-paced, and with interesting guest characters. As always, the music is well done and the sets are bright and colorful. Fun for both the younger (toddler) and older (preschool/kindergarten) kids.

Dorothy the Dinosaur
I bought this movie for my munchkins after they recived "The Best of the Wiggles" DVD from Grandma and nearly drove me crazy with the CONSTANT watching (I'm talking about back-to-back-to-back watching for 2 weeks). Having never seen the Wiggles before I was very impressed with the type of songs and dancing that they had. I thought the Dorothy movie would provide a nice variety for us. When I ordered it I thought that is was part of the Dorothy the Dinosaur show but it is really flashbacks to the show. While not what I had expected it was still a cute movie. Dorothy and Wags look through a picture book of Dorothy's and remember all the fun they had. The songs are more "classical" in nature than the rest of the songs the Wiggles sing. My 5 and 4 yr. olds (both girls) like to dance along with Dorothy, who shows them how to do the footwork on a few songs. My 3 yr. old (boy) and 18 mo. old (girl) try to sing along but otherwise are happy to watch Dorothy do all the dancing! Even though it...

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The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations (After Dark Horrorfest III)

Not the Best of the Series, But Surprisingly Entertaining
The time-travelling thriller series continues with "The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations" starring Chris Carmack as Sam, who as a "psychic" helps the local police capture the criminals of unsolved cases. The fact is, Sam can travel back to the time the crime is committed and he reports everything that is necessary for the police to arrest the culprit. Very few people know of his special ability, though, and his sister Jenna (Rachel Miner), who assists his time travel, is one of them.

But there is one rule Sam must observe - he may watch, but he should never interfere. But of course he does break the rule when Elizabeth Brown (Sarah Habel) asks him to jump back to 10 years ago. And Elizabeth is the sister of Rebecca Brown (Mia Serafino), Sam's dead girlfriend.

The third installment of the "Butterfly Effect" franchise may not be as impressive as the first one, but still "The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations" is surprisingly well-plotted and entertaining. Though the...

Not completely awful, but still.
The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations (Seth Grossman, 2009)

There's a Butterfly Effect 3? I wasn't even aware there had been a Butterfly Effect 2. (Turns out, after I did five seconds of research, it was a straight-to-video 2006 release.) In any case, a number of After Dark Horrorfest viewers (those who actually went to the theater to see the usually-awful movies After Dark distributes) said Revelations was their favorite of the ADHF flicks from '09, so I decided I'd watch that one before those no one talked about. (I do admit I watched the two everyone hated first...) And while it's not as good as the original, which was no great shakes but watchable, it's surprisingly not half bad. And the lack of Ashton Kutcher on the screen helps immensely.

Plot: if you've seen one Butterfly Effect movie, you know what's going to happen. Guy is capable of jumping around in time. Guy messes around with his own timeline and causes unexpected changes in his present, which change...

Reading so many bad reviews, I have to disagree..
I happen to like the first one, and suprisingly, liked the second one. I'm not going to go to great lengths to convince you that the 3rd in the series is a good watch, but give it a chance. Maybe not purchase it before seeing it, like I did...but I wasn't disappointed.

Let's just say that if you liked the storyline of the first one, give it a chance. I actually liked the 3rd one more than the 2nd. It's kind of like Butterfly Effect meets Saw. There's much more gore in this one than both BE previous.

It's at least worth a rent....at least!

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There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly... and More Stories That Sing

A FAV around our house
We own every Scholastic Video in the series & we think this is one of the best! These "stories that sing" are very catchy. My kids love to run around the coffee table (their form of dancing) to "There Was an Old Lady..." I admit when I first watched from afar the second story "Antarctic Antics", I thought the illustrations were kinda boring, just because I am not a huge fan of penguins...but since my kids request this one ALL the time, I have since grown to LOVE it. You are walked thru the life of a penguin. It is educational, but very entertaining with very funny lyrics like..."Antarctica, you'd better bring your partika" I find myself singing this often :) Lots of talented singers to be enjoyed (including singer from the Mavericks.) We love the bonus stories also (only on the DVD version.) Favorite author Lois Ehlert's "Waiting for Wings" is FABULOUS, I mean truly FABULOUS!!! This one is a winner.

Not up to Scholastic Video Collection Standards
Let me start out by saying we have a few DVDs from the Scholastic Video Collection and my family really likes them, especially "Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom" and "Where the Wild Things Are."

I really did not like this DVD and was disappointed with it. The main story was not too bad but the first read through was half sung and half read. After the reading of the story, there was the Cyndi Lauper version which was really bad. I don't know if it was the tempo, her accent or what but no one was going to be singing along. I guess I went blindly into this DVD because I like the other Scholastic Videos so much. I was thinking that my girls (2 and 4) might find some cool songs to sing. Sorry, no such thing here. As for the "and more stories that sing" part, that was completely off. The whole Antarctic Antics was sung but you are not going to be singing along with it, especially the part where they sing about penguin regurgitation.

I don't write a lot of reviews but I had to...

No age info. on the front cover
I bought this DVD (and others from the same collection) as alternatives to the ubiquitous Disney ... So far I have only seen this one. My only complaint is that there was no info regarding age on the front cover. I bought it for my six-year-old... and I think she would have enjoyed it a lot more at 3 or 4. At 6, I am not sure if she will want to watch it more than a couple of times.

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Red Sands

A very uneven film. A mixed bag.
I think this project was very promising... and as my title says, it succeeds in some places while failing in others. Here's the story in 25 words or less: a group of soldiers in Afghanistan break an old statue and release a Djinn (an old spirit who hates humans). So they break the antique and go spend a few nights in a abandoned Afghan house in the middle of nowhere where they must secure the area. And the Djinn attacks...

Now, here are the good and bad things.

BAD - Most of the special effects are horrible... the Djinn at the end is laughable. Simply laughable. In my point of view, the producers/director made the big mistake of saving money at the end of the film (where in fact, they should deliver the goods). That's too bad.

GOOD - Tension. The screenplay does a nice job managing the tension between the men. The dialogs are great and some characters are believable (although some other characters are too stupid for us to create any empathy). And too...

Soldiers fight more then the Taliban
Soldiers fight more then the Taliban in this film. Oops we woke up a demon and now we must pay in odd and spooky ways. This is a very original tail with a good cast and odd setting. The female Afghanistan is very pretty and creepy as the woman who is put in the middle of this mess or is she more then that? There is some nice gore effects but the demon it's self is pretty iffy CGI, but you can not have everything. The acting is good and the fast pace will keep you locked in and trying to figure out how are boy's are going to get out alive. A movie with a fresh story that is worth a look.

A bit campy
Wasn't what I expexcted. Needs a better plot. Special effects weren't bad though.May be if our real service members act more approprate they won't have such problems.

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My Very First Treasury of 50 Storybook Classics: Preschool Stories (Scholastic Storybook Treasures)

Gentle entertainment for preschoolers and older toddlers
Why must children's videos scream at them? Hyperkinetic television conditions kids to expect fireworks from all of their entertainment, so that even the creators of the good stuff (Little Einsteins, Team Umi Zoomi and even the later versions of Dora the Explorer) believe everything must be BIGGER to compete. Scholastic classic stories provide a gentle, welcome respite from the usual kids' DVD. These are perfect for wind down time before naps or bedtime, or for in the car. The storylines are deceptively simple enough for preschoolers, but provide the substance and depth to condition children to appreciate literature over the flash and twaddle that constitutes junk food TV.

Helped teach my son to read
My four-year-old son just started reading, and when people ask me if I taught him, I say, "No! The Scholastic DVDs did!" (Much like the Leap Frog DVDs taught him his letters when he was 21 months old.) We went to the library and got the corresponding books with each DVD. He watches them over and over and OVER. He asks what words are, and then he learns them. And while most of these books he has memorized by now, he can read other books because of the skills he has learned. I would say age two is too young to be able to appreciate most of the stories. Put them away until age three or four and then try again.

Great Value
I am a preschool teacher and love this DVD set! I first read the book to the children, then show them the DVD. This helps the children that need the visual reinforcement. They get so excited seeing the story that they are familiar with on the screen! 50 stories...most classics...great value.

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