Special Effects

Starring:ZoÃ« Lund, Eric Bogosian, Brad Rijn, Kevin O'Connor, Bill Oland, Richard Greene (III), Steven Pudenz, Heidi Bassett, John Woehrle, Kitty Summerall, Kris Evans, Mike Alpert
Director: Larry Cohen
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Director's Series, Vol. 2 - The Work of Director Chris Cunningham

Average customer rating:

Why stories aren't necessary for well executed nightmares
The videos aren't bad, but the presentation is horrible...
not 400 minutes - more like 60. Quality awesome, quantity really bad
Amazing videos... where's the rest?
My DVD cracked as soon as I got it!!

Director's Series, Vol. 2 - The Work of Director Chris Cunningham
Starring: Aphex Twin , Stephen Ball (II) , Robert Ball (VI) , William Baraket , and Björk
Director: Lance Bangs
Manufacturer: Palm Pictures / Umvd
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Director's Series, Vol. 3 - The Work of Director Michel Gondry
Director's Series, Vol. 1 - The Work of Director Spike Jonze
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Director's Series Vol. 6 - Work of Director Anton Corbijn
Director's Series Vol. 5 - Work of Director Jonathan Glazer

ASIN: B0000DBJ9I
Release Date: 2003-10-28

Amazon.com

Like the other volumes in the acclaimed Director's Series (featuring the work of Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry), The Work of Director Chris Cunningham offers a feast of visual ingenuity, with one major difference: Unlike the relatively playful brightness of Jonze and Gondry, Cunningham wants to involve you in his nightmares. From the urban monstrosities of Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" to the limb-shattering weirdness of Leftfield's "Afrika Shox," Cunningham's music videos emphasize the freakish and the bizarre, but they are also arrestingly beautiful and otherworldly, as in the aquatic effects used for Portishead's "Only You," combining underwater movements with ominous urban landscapes. Some of Cunningham's shock effects are horrifically effective (his 'flex" video installation, excerpted here with music by Aphex Twin, is as disturbing as anything conjured by David Cronenberg), while others are cathartic or, in the case of Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker," outrageously amusing. And while the eerie elegance of Madonna's "Frozen" arose from a chaotic production, the signature work in this collection is clearly Björk's "All Is Full of Love," a masterfully simple yet breathtaking vision of intimacy involving advanced robotics and seamless CGI composites. In these and other videos, Cunningham advances a unique aesthetic, infusing each video and commercial he makes with a dark, occasionally gothic sensibility. That these frequently nightmarish visions are also infectiously hypnotic is a tribute to Cunningham's striking originality. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Why stories aren't necessary for well executed nightmares.......2006-06-01

I write this review mainly to react on a kind of comment I often here but never realy get. It's the standard comment that a a book, a movie or a video, how skillfully crafted or how originally conceived in the beginning, is never really good when there is no real story line. Apparently there must be a tale to be told, going from A to B and ending with Z. (And if you are Christopher Nolan or David Lynch your stories may go from B to D to Y and ending with J or something. But, at the end, a lot of people keep on saying: "there must be a narrative".)

Why? I ask. What is wrong with a single image? I mean look at American painter Edward Hopper, to me the greatest artist of all: He haunts us with scenes of alienation and loneliness that stick, that haunts and reflects. Cetain photographers win World Press Photo Awards for capturing big events in one single shot, or: one single blink of the eye. Of course, the pictures created carry with them loads of tales and history, otherwise the pictures wouldn't have been taken in the first place.

Now here we have a video artist, Chris Cunningham, whose work we now can admire on one disc: Eight video's which presents us with nightmarish worlds in anonymous urban landscapes (Leftfield's "Afrika Shox" and Aphex Twins' "Come to daddy" and "Windowlicker"), nameless deserts (Madonna's "Frozen"), surreal Japanese lunybins for deranged kiddies (Squarepusher's "Come to my selector") and a static white room where futuristic robo-intelligence is perfectly combined with claustrophobic erotisism (Bjýrk's "All is full of love"). All of these worlds presented here have a kind of autism, in the sense of `being in it's own world'.

So following this comment I conclude that Cunningham makes Art For The Sake Of Art. (the original Frensh slogan for this kind of work of course, by the way, is: l'Art pour l'art).
These video's are sometimes scary as in the case of the menacing bunch of ever-grinning gettho-midges in "Come to daddy", but at the same time, drenched in a juicy sause of oozing black humour. The same can be said about "Afrika Shock" in which a psychotic black guy wanders the streets without anyone reaching out for him, literaly losing his limbs one at the time. Creepy, otherworldy and yet filled with moments for sickening laughs: We don't know whether to be seriously shocked or secretly amused, as with the best works of Kafka.

And talking about Kafka, here is one of the best writers in the world, whose real strength to me are still his short pieces of fiction, which are as plotless as Cunninghams visions right here, but which visually stunning, arresting and, at best, are little drops of liquid acid, secreted underneath our eyelids.

Story isn't necessary is just what I want to say, when a well crafted portrait, scene, vision or visual prophecy is enough to captivate us, and makes us shiver (or, okay okay, secretly laugh out loud).
And we have Cunningham to prove it. So I can now rest my case.

The videos aren't bad, but the presentation is horrible..........2006-03-20

"All is Full of Love" is a brilliant video in every respect - it's perverse and transcendent at the same time, mixing in humaniform robots with flowing water and hard ceramic - it looks like the future of robot porn.

However, what makes me only able to listen to it for brief periods is the menus. Whoever decided that it'd be a good idea to play a hideous cacaphony of every song on the disk, apparently played backwards and at high speed during the menu screens, ought to be horsewhipped for ruining an otherwise good disk. (Even if it is Chris Cunningham.) When the menu screens make you want to take the disk out and throw it out the window, you gotta reconsider the wisdom of doing that.

Fortunately, I believe that "All is Full of Love" is available on another Bjork video collection, so I'll buy that and sell this one to the local CD/Video concern.

-Darren MacLennan

not 400 minutes - more like 60. Quality awesome, quantity really bad.......2006-01-18

I saw this DVD for sale in Urban Outfitters, and decided to use the money I got from returning another gift to the store to get it, after I confirmed on Amazon.com that the running time was long (they say 400 minutes above!). I was worried because it didn't list very many works on the back cover, but I thought maybe they didn't list everything.

Well, I just pulled it out now and after an hour and a half at most, probably more like an hour, I'm done watching the entire DVD. I feel kind of cheated, if what the other reviewer here says is true, that Chris Cunningham actually has a lot of other music videos that weren't put on this DVD. The "flex" video was particularly disappointing, it starts off with so much potential and then suddenly ends, so that it's obvious that they cut it off.

To make things more insulting, the booklet that they include with the DVD, which is full of pictures from his videos and some interviews, includes lots of still frames from videos that aren't on the DVD. There are all these cool shots of videos that I would love to see, but they didn't include them. Nor is there any attempt to explain why they're not there. In fact, in some cases (for example, "Engine") it appears that they actually cut out scenes from the videos on this DVD.

What they do have is great, which just leaves me wanting more. "All is Full Of Love" is mesmerizing, I had to watch it twice it was so good. "Leftfield," "Windowlicker" and "Come to Daddy" manage to be both funny and haunting at the same time. Portishead's "Only You" is a bit of a disappointment, but I could see how others would like it. Madonna's "Frozen" is also beautiful. Anyway I don't want to get more specific lest I ruin it for those who haven't seen it already.

At any rate, I would not recommend this purchase for most people. For *SOME* people it might be a good purchase, if like me you've seen maybe one of the videos and really liked it and want to check out some more of his work. But if you're looking for a complete collection of Chris Cunningham's work, this unfortunately isn't it, and I don't think it will be worth your $20 to get it since all the main features are things you probably have already seen several times.

Also - don't be fooled by the fact that it says it's a "collection of music videos, short films, video installations and commercials." There is one short film (a 5 minute interview with him and Bjork) and 2 video installations (a video called "Monkey Drummer" which is not all that great, and flex which gets cut off). There are 3 commercials, none of which is all that good, except maybe the "mental wealth" one (if you can understand it which I can't).

Anyway, somebody from Amazon.com should fix that runtime listing.

(Incidentally, it looks like the rest of the Director's Label DVD's don't suffer from this problem, they have a lot of content.)

Amazing videos... where's the rest?.......2005-07-04

I received this DVD with the Director's Label box set that also came with the Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry DVDs. I think if I had bought the Chris Cunningham DVD as a standalone, I would have been disappointed simply because it doesn't come with that much (or as much as it could have)! Sure, it has the videos that he is most famous for (Aphex Twin ones, Bjork) but those are also the ones that you, as a music video buff, have probably already seen a few times. Not to say that it isn't great to watch crisp, clean, high quality DVD versions of them, but I don't know if it will be worth your money.

And the most annoying thing is that they show little millisecond clips of these unincluded videos on the DVD menu! It's like, come on Director's Label people, why flash bits of videos that aren't even included, except as some sort of rude tease? You end up watching everything and thinking, where were the cat-headed dudes I saw in the menu? Did I miss something? And why only a excerpt of Flex?

Okay, besides all that, his work is totally genius and talk about jaw-dropping, absolutely flawless special effects! Better than any special effects you'll see in a Hollywood blockbuster, that's for sure. But overall, I recommend the 3 DVD box set because Jonze and Gondry are great too.

My DVD cracked as soon as I got it!!.......2005-04-28

I had seen this DVD before and liked many of Chris' work. So I bought this. The second time I took it out of the spindal it cracked in half all the way across on one side and had several other cracks starting in the middle. The spindle that hold this is a bad design and the DVD very brittle beware!!!!!!

I would not recomend this DVD for the problems I had reasons and I could not get a refund.

Average customer rating:

A very trippy video
Enjoyed!!!
Booooring
Acid flashback
Beautiful and magical

Illuminated Manuscripts
Director: John Banks (IV)
Manufacturer: Artek Images
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Caught Between Worlds - A Computer Animation Vision

ASIN: B00006CFA8
Release Date: 2002-07-11

Description

Illuminated Manuscripts is video DVD featuring a series of animations exploring the visionary nature of journeys. Layering an original soundtrack over photographic scenes of temples, waterfalls, forests and doorways, this DVD introduces a new experience of art that draws from video, music, nature, and organic special effects. The DVD features organically styled computer animation by John S. Banks and world/electronic music by composer Fritz Heede. This disc contains 17 beautiful works that explore visions of lost worlds and journeys of discovery. With original sources drawn from ancient sites, deep green nature and lost languages, Illuminated Manuscripts will appeal to anyone interested in Animation, Nature, Meditation and Fantasy.

In addition to the main animations, this DVD features 6 eternal loops, ambient remixes, alternate soundtracks, still art gallery and interactive menus.

Customer Reviews:

A very trippy video.......2007-06-04

This is a great piece of ambient video background. I would strongly recommend it for any chill space or party. Very psychedelic and evocative.

Enjoyed!!!.......2007-04-18

I really enjoyed this DVD........

I recently bought the recent release of The Ritual Path after seeing some clips on Nijole Sparkis and Fritz Heede's my space pages and really enjoyed the images and music so I thought I would give the Illuminated Manuscripts a try.
I really thought it was well done and would have enjoyed it just for the music. I guess it depends on what you are looking for as to weather or not you will like it. I watched on a regular TV with a $100 DVD player and thought it was great. Someone else may watch on a $10,000 TV and system and may still not be impressed.
I looked at another DVD review that was mentioned and highly recommended by someone that didn't like this one, yet that DVD only had 2 reviews and not good.. So just a matter of taste and perhaps the digital age has made it very hard to impress a person.
I feel the DVD does what it was meant to do, provide some relaxing music with some wonderful scenes, perhaps the title Illuminated Manuscripts explains the writings and emblems that appear in the video.
Perhaps if you are able to watch some clips you will know if it's for you or even check out the more recent Ritual Path. I come from a rock music background and don't feel that I'm easily impressed but from my personal viewing I would recommend both the Illuminated Manuscripts or the Ritual Path. It's been awhile since I have seen some of the other animated clips mentioned in some of the reviews here and admit some of what I remember they were great, but these do what they were meant to do just like Chronos did years ago without the animation.....

Booooring.......2007-01-30

Here is another example of where 90's-era digital animation ends up being mundane. Even with the decade or so that has passed since the brief explosion of digital animation releases, I still enjoy watching the good ones (Gate to the Mind's Eye, Televoid). This one doesn't count.

The effort that went into this work was obviously tremendous, so you can't fault the quality. It's also fairly unique in mixing animation with real imagery shot on location.

But it's just so dull. I suppose if you've had a really bad day and wanted to watch (and hear) something soothing, this would be a good choice. I, although I certainly have my share of hectic days, want my animation to be gripping, weird, and fun. Illuminated Manuscripts is just high-tech yoga.

Acid flashback.......2007-01-12

This video was a little disappointing. I got it for my son who is an illustration student. He found it kind of corny....it was not really "state of the art"...to me it was like a flashback from the sixties. Groovy!

Beautiful and magical.......2006-11-13

This is a beautiful DVD. There is something magical about it. Highely recommended.

King Kong - Peter Jackson's Production Diaries

Average customer rating:

Shame on Me
ULTIMATE FILM SCHOOL IN A BOX
Will These Diaries Appear On An Extended Edition?
RATHER WAIT FOR THE EXTENDED EDITION
great!^^

King Kong - Peter Jackson's Production Diaries
Starring: Jack Black , Andy Serkis , Adrien Brody , Naomi Watts , and Alan Meyerson
Director: Michael Pellerin (II)
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000BMSUJK
Release Date: 2005-12-13

Amazon.com

The King Kong - Peter Jackson's Production Diaries is an impressive set geared directly toward fans, collectors, and those interested in the film-making process. In all likelihood Peter Jackson and co. are going to release a King Kong set bulging with extras, so why buy the "extras" now? Fair question. However, if you're aching with anticipation for a major glimpse into the 6-month production process of this modern day extravaganza, the King Kong - Peter Jackson's Production Diaries is an absolute "must have." Housed in a sturdy, faux clip board complete with a 52-page production memoir and art prints, this two DVD set opens up a three and a half hour window into what goes on in the making of a major blockbuster film. The bulk of the footage consists of the 54 "production diaries" (which can be sorted and viewed by production date or production location) culled from the "Kong is King" website. These hand held video diaries are candid peeks into the complex, humorous, detailed and involved world of the movie making process. There are a lot of Peter Jackson interviews, but over the six month time frame you eventually hear from every single person involved in the film--actors, the WETA team, animal trainers, assistant camera people, lighting technician, set crews, miniatures, make-up, etc. It is safe to say that not a stone is left unturned in revealing what goes on behind the scenes on a major motion picture set. Extremely careful not to give anything away, the King Kong - Peter Jackson's Production Diaries, though heavy in the production process, is very light on showing the final product. Nothing is revealed to ruin the movie experience. Well, almost nothing. One bonus video diary is "The Making of a Shot - The T-Rex Fight." In this 16 minutes diary you get to witness what goes on in creating the chilling "T-Rex Fight" from conception to special effects construction to the final jaw-dropping product. It is amazing to see two years of work unfold before your very eyes in two and a half minutes. --Rob Bracco

Description

Peter Jackson invites his fans on an unprecedented entertaining journey with this ground-breaking 2-Disc DVD release in which fans are transported onto the set of King Kong to experience the entire 6-month production process with the cast and crew.

Customer Reviews:

Shame on Me.......2007-01-15

Great presentation of material, but I didn't read all the details before I purchased it. The one thing I didn't get in the package was the one thing I wanted, The Movie. There was all these special features but no movie. Oh well, I won't make that mistake again.

ULTIMATE FILM SCHOOL IN A BOX.......2006-09-18

Film geeks will love KING KONG - PETER JACKSON'S PRODUCTION DIARIES (Universal). The 54 weekly on-line episodes are a two disc, four hour plus chronicle that details the production of Peter Jackson's visually stunning, re-imagining of the 1933 giant gorilla gone wild hit.

A special 16-minute feature examines the development to final product of Kong's eye-popping "fight in the vines" with three T-Rexes. This over the top set piece is a brilliant example of the state of the art, innovative production design that informs every frame of Jackson's amazing film.

The DVD is packaged in a faux Carl Denham period satchel and includes a 52 page scrapbook of sketches, photos and notes from Jackson scrapbook and four frame-worthy prints of concept art.

Will These Diaries Appear On An Extended Edition?.......2006-04-18

The LoTR diaries and extras found on the theatrical DVD's WERE NOT part of the extended edition's extra material... consider it before you pass up this 'limited edition' set...

RATHER WAIT FOR THE EXTENDED EDITION.......2006-04-10

The lowering in the price of this set plus the lack of these production diaries in the just released Special Edition make it rather tempting to consider going ahead and purchasing it rather than waiting for the much rumored King Kong extended edition which is almost certain to include all diaries in the near future. Still, one has to guess you would be missing the following obvious features in the said future set: audio commentary, new scenes, numerous trailes, the internet documentaries, bloopers (acording to a recent Peter Jackson interview, and who know what else.
Guess I'd rather wait.

great!^^.......2006-03-27

ive recomended this seller to all my freinds as this also came with another post of mine both of which arrived in top condition and with the highest of speed^^

Encounter in the Third Dimension (3-D) (Large Format)

Average customer rating:

The world of 3d.... impressive
Best 3D IMAX Film
A fantastic encounter!
BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yawn!

Encounter in the Third Dimension (3-D) (Large Format)
Starring: Stuart Pankin , Cassandra Peterson , Harry Shearer , and Andrea Thompson
Director: Ben Stassen , and Sean MacLeod Phillips
Manufacturer: Sling Shot
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005QCWW
Release Date: 2001-10-16

Amazon.com

Without question, 3-D technology has come a long way since the days of red and green cardboard glasses, and Encounter in the Third Dimension is ample proof. This half-hour feature--also available in The Ultimate 3-D Collection, which includes two other films and the H3D "i-glasses" hardware needed to generate the 3-D imaging--tells the story of three-dimensional cinema, in the process showing off a lot of what the technology can do. Elvira's presence is largely incidental; the best section by far is a dramatic tour through an otherworldly chasm. The film's sense of depth is astoundingly convincing, especially during the many point-of-view sequences; crags and dinosaur limbs seem to jut halfway between the screen and your viewing position. The disc's image and color resolution are not as good as we've come to expect from DVD, however.

Originally produced to showcase "large-format" 3-D (i.e., a towering IMAX screen), Encounter features fun snippets of old films and even a few stereographic still photos. Sadly, none of these fills the screen or lasts very long, and the process reverts to standard 2-D imaging in pause mode. The sound is well above average, enhancing the sense of depth with a seamless DTS surround mix that works well even in headphones. --Michael Mikesell

Customer Reviews:

The world of 3d.... impressive.......2006-11-03

First of all, even if the movie is available in 2d and 3d...hum...this is
definitively a 3d movie experience.. worth 4 stars and only 2 stars if
you watch it in 2d. So get your special flicker glases and enjoys those
things that like to come out from your tv.

Best 3D IMAX Film.......2005-12-09

"Haunted Castle" and "Alien Adventure" are great, but the concept and dimensional enjoyment of "Encounter in the Third Dimension" makes it better than the other two. The film is an excellent way of showing how 3D started and how it works with lots of prime examples thrown in, other than the entire movie itself. I do wish the mine ride was longer though (the one which ends with the big, round, stone ball slamming into the tunnel) and there was more shown of the T3 Experience. Sure, the Jules Verne "Journey to the Center of the Earth" ride certainly makes up for it, but the effects in the shorter example were awesome, like the bats. Best of all, the film doesn't look all that dated CGI wise for a 1998 production. Now I've definitely got to get the sequel "Misadventures in 3D" DVD. Noticed something stupid in the credits for "Encounter". Instead of saying "Cassandra Peterson as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark", it redundantly reads, "Elvira as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark". Unlike the other 3D IMAX films, this one is good either in stereo depth form or 2D wise. Of course, the best is 3D since that is the whole point of the story anyway. I highly recommend this movie to all 3D collectors.

A fantastic encounter!.......2005-07-13

"Encounter in the third dimension" contains a pretty neat concept......

Let's film a 3-D documentary IN 3D about the history of 3D and 3D movies, throw in some clips of classic 3D movies and mix them with the latest and greatest in computer animated 3D virtual reality! AWESOME!

The movie has some great old footage, and is very informative while being consistently entertaining. A nice job all the way through- even though Elvira is grossly underused!! I can not wait to see what else NWAVE pictures has up their sleeve. They are definitely on the cutting edge of 3D home entertainment. I have yet to see anything that rivals "Encounter", "Alien Adventure" or "Haunted Castle" on the 3D market!

Very well done!

Do not watch this in 2D, howver; highly recommended for 3D lovers!!!

BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2004-01-19

3-D is WONDERFUL!!!!!I love Encounter In The Third Dimension!!!! I got it with the Ultimate 3-D Collection.

Yawn!.......2003-10-04

The obvious attitude of the producers of this mess was clearly one of superiority. I mean, "After all, we're shooting in IMAX 3D instead of the nefarious over/under format!" Well, whoopdeedoo! I'll take THE BUBBLE, METALSTORM, or AMITYVILLE 3D any day over this. There is some nice computer graphics work here, but there's really no story to speak of. And their so-called "history of 3D presentation" is superficial at best. While surely impressive in Imax, ENCOUNTER looks stupid on your TV screen 'cause everything is covered in a long shot or a medium long shot. Yes, that may work on the giant behemoth Imax screen, but reduce it in size to your TV (even my big 36-inch JVC) and it's pretty unimpressive. Not only that, but if you're watching it in alternating-field 3D with liquid crystal glasses, then you're watching it in half the normal resolution you normally see on your NTSC screen -- so there's next to NO picture detail. If you want a good 3D DVD movie, search the web for one of the alternating field DVD's of something like IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, HOUSE OF WAX, or DIAL M FOR MURDER (sadly only available in 3D via pirated editions because the US distributors don't care enough to bother -- so were only left with legit DVD's of crap like ENCOUNTERS and amatuer videos of murderous clowns on the rampage). I would have given this two stars because it features (very briefly) Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson -- BUT THEY COVERED HER ONLY IN LONG SHOT TOO! They were REALLY stooopid, so they get one star. Boo!

Average customer rating:

I see demons everywhere!!!
GOOD MOVIE,I DIDNT EXPECTED!!!
A strange but interesting movie
Lightning Bug by director Robert Hall
Good work Laura,Brett,Lucas

Lightning Bug
Starring: Bret Harrison , Laura Prepon , Kevin Gage , Ashley Laurence , and Lucas Till
Director: Robert Hall
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0009PVZHS
Release Date: 2005-08-09

Description

A drama/thriller, set in the south, about a young boy who longs to escape the misery of his childhood and the misunderstanding of his hometown. A gifted, self-taught, special effects make up artist, Green dreams of going to Hollywood to make his own monsters. But the real demons of Green's life threaten to hold him back: a drunken stepfather who terrorizes his mother, a group of religious fanatics who want to destroy his work, and the love of a girl who can't let go of small town life.

Customer Reviews:

I see demons everywhere!!!.......2007-01-02

I just saw this movie and I am still sitting here stunned. I loved this movie. It really brings together who really are the "demons" in one's life. Being raised with this mentality myself, and spending many hours in therapy to rationalize what had happened to my childhood, I can sympathize with anyone that goes through this kinda "torment" and celebrate thier freedom when they are out of it. This movie is very like real life and very believable to the last second. I recommend this movie to anyone that has had hopes and dreams to achieve with minimal support and finally gets what the person wanted. Achievement!!!!!

GOOD MOVIE,I DIDNT EXPECTED!!!.......2006-11-26

I just saw this movie .WOW I really liked it, cast they done great job, acting & cast was SUPER!!!!!!!!!

Love the rock sound track, great music in this movie, Really got me, Because any youth have dream to become someone or having a talent to make it big one day in this crazy world. And is true!!And this guy, have talent for Halloween mask & special effects & makeup he makes, with the real "disturbing" & scary life drama he have, really got me in edge my seat and didn't let me go till end with a little twist I never thought going to comes like that...really liked it!!

I gives this movie with great scrip and cast a B+
Don't miss this movie for sure ,rent or buy whatever just see it at least once!

A strange but interesting movie.......2006-08-06

It's a odd but well done little movie. This young man wants to become a special effects artist. He's very good at making horror masks and scary creatures. You can't help but feel for the guy. His mom is...well...white trash. And the people around him are too. The people around him are so cartoonish it bothered me. But they did make them more real as the movie evolved. They became more real and likable. I could feel for his mother at the end.

One person besides the main character who was authentic was his girlfriend (acted by Laura Prepon of That '70s Show fame). At times, it seemed as if there are two normal people surrounded by the strange denizens of the small town they live in. Perhaps that was done intentionally.

This movie is a fine effort at being unique. It's a drama with touches of comedy and horror. It comes across as a B movie but again I think that was intended to feel that way.

Lightning Bug by director Robert Hall.......2006-07-05

This movie was filmed close to where I live. I honestly wasn't sure how good it was going to be. I was very suprised. This is an excellent movie! The story is well written, the characters are so real that it was easy to forget that I knew some of the locations in the film! I have watched it about 4 or 5 times already and would recommend it to ANYONE who likes down to earth suspense in small town locations. Truly a wonderful movie.

Good work Laura,Brett,Lucas.......2005-12-31

I rented this movie from my local video store because
I am a fan of Laura Prepon. Lightning Bug might not have drawn my attention otherwise. I like the movie and bought it to "vote with my dollar" in support of independent film makers. That 70'Show began airing when I was completely disgusted with TV for glamourising stupid dysfunctional BS. T7S is still one of very few shows I watch and I am still mad at Fox for screwing over Grounded For Life!
Lightning Bug is a permanent addition to my movie collection. The other customer reviews which slam it are full of crap,in my humble opinion. Mark in Indianapolis.

Average customer rating:

Clarification
Animated Heaven
Puppetoon Review
Worth it for Jasper in a Jam alone.
Cute, but....

The Puppetoon Movie
Starring: Paul Frees , and Victor Jory
Director: Arnold Leibovit
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
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Similar Items:

George Pal - Flights of Fantasy
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Cameraman's Revenge & Other Fantastic Tales

ASIN: B00004Z4VL
Release Date: 2000-11-21

Amazon.com

Before Wallace and Gromit, before Gumby and Pokey, Hungarian-born animator and director George Pal (1908-1980) created the stop-motion shorts he dubbed "Puppetoons." Arnold Leibovit has assembled an affectionate tribute to Pal that includes animation from 11 "Puppetoons." Twelve other films are included on the DVD version, although there's some overlap. Pal used his charming little figures in miniature Busby Berkeley numbers and simple boy-meets-girl stories. But he could tackle more serious subjects, as he proved in "Tulips Shall Grow" (1943). He caricatured the Nazi wehrmacht as the goose-stepping, robotic Screwball Army, attacking Holland (where the artist had made his first films before coming to America). His most endearing short is probably "Tubby the Tuba" (1947), the story of an eager little horn who wants his song to be heard. In 1947, Ebony praised Pal's "John Henry and the Inky Poo" (1946) as "that rarest of Hollywood products that has no Negro stereotypes, but rather treats the Negro with dignity, imagination, poetry, and love." But the magazine criticized his series about Jasper, a little African American boy. These films have aged less gracefully, and modern viewers may find jokes about watermelon, haunted houses, and other standards of ethnic humor objectionable. Not rated: suitable for ages 8 and up. Parents may want to monitor the use of ethnic stereotypes. --Charles Solomon

Description

Enter a world of animated movie magic from eight time Academy Award winner George Pal. Hosted by Gumby, Pokey, and new pal "Arnie the Dinosaur," "The Puppetoon Movie" features classic characters like "Tubby the Tuba," "Jasper in a Jam," and "Speedy Alka-Seltzer." With hip jazz tunes from Charlie Barnet and Louis Armstrong, and as many as 5,000 individually carved puppets per short, "The Puppetoon Movie" will astound and delight children and film buffs of all ages!

Customer Reviews:

Clarification.......2007-01-20

The cartoon on this disc is not "Bravo, Mr Strauss", but "Mr Strauss Takes a Walk". The former is what I was looking for since it's the one I remember best. It features the Screwball Army invading Vienna. They tear things up, and a statue of Strauss comes to life and restores everything by playing the violin. I haven't been able to find it on home video.

Animated Heaven.......2007-01-05

George Pal's Puppettoons are unknown to today's kids, but when I was a boy, they were on TV along with cartoons, and I loved them. They have the charm, wit and the magic which George Pal brought to all his work. Best of all, there are so many bonus puppettoons that it's like getting two whole featrues. The only quibble is that a few of the "Extra" puppettoons are ones in the main feature, only in somewhat longer form. For fans of stop-motion animation, or just fans of charming shorts, this is a great collection.

Puppetoon Review.......2006-02-24

George Pal's Puppetoons are great. I remember watching them 45 years ago whilst growing up. I was hopeing for a few more toons with The Screw Ball Army in them but one is better than none. Well worth the little money I paid.

Worth it for Jasper in a Jam alone........2005-08-30

Before the movies there were the Puppetoons. Everyone who knows LooneyToons, Max Fleischer, and Disney should know George Pal's work as well. 'Jasper in a Jam', 'Tubby the Tuba' and 'John Henry and the Inkeypoo' are classics; the rest has bright spots here and there and is worthwhile if only for the advertising and political history. (Ignore the contrived intro and outro of the movie and focus on Pal's work.)
A companion piece: 'The Fantasy Film World of George Pal' covers his movies, including 'The Time Machine', 'War of the Worlds', 'Destination Moon', 'Atlantis', 'Tom Thumb', 'The Brothers Grimm' and 'The Seven Faces of Dr. Loa'.

Cute, but...........2004-05-24

It could have been more satisfying! There, of course, is the requisite "Tubby the Tuba", but just ONE piece featuring the Screwball Army! There were NUMEROUS Pal Puppetoon productions featuring these comical takes on fascism! Where's the Dr. Seuss "Mulberry Street" short? The short with the clarinet playing woodchopper? The other "Punchy & Judys"? (I wonder if the creators of "Little Lulu" ever commented on those!) And why so many from the thirties?? Most of Pal's best output of these little gems was in the forties and fifties....

Pal's Puppetoon work had a singular artistry to it. The figures moved unlike most other stop-action animated units, most of which generally just try to put across the tableau as plainly as possible. Pal's creations REACTED like cartoon characters...wild takes, feature distortion, ambient movement...all very idiosyncratic. The only other animation to be that generous with detailed movement were the Warner's Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies made between 1940 and 1955.

Most of them were funny, charming and quirky and embraced the art deco aesthetic like nothing else I've ever seen in animated art. What Pal's people could wring out of simple geometric shapes was amazing, and you'll notice, that's about all that they used...no weird freehand polygons are visible in the animation work...just spheroids, cones, rods and other distinct geometric solids. The only exception to this seems to be the "Punchy & Judy" bits.

His animation team must have suffered from gawrsh-awful cases of carpal tunnel syndrome and writer's cramp, because this was all incrementally implemented BY HAND to give the illusion of fluid movement. They just don't make them like that anymore...and this DVD should have featured fewer of the movie house adverts for Philips radios and Horlock's malteds and more of our old afternoon cartoon show favorites!

Average customer rating:

Needed
Go to bed.
Before you buy it read this!!!
Are you people DAFT???
An exhaustive (and exhausting) look at THE MATRIX.

The Matrix Revisited
Starring: Peter Doyle , Jason Bentley , Zach Staenberg , Lorenzo di Bonaventura , and Joel Silver
Director: Josh Oreck
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005OBB9
Release Date: 2001-11-20

Amazon.com

A fitting supplement to the feature-packed Matrix DVD, The Matrix Revisited provides a wealth of Matrix arcana, delivered by the 1999 blockbuster's principal cast and crew. The main course in this 163-minute feast is a two-hour documentary covering virtually every aspect of production, with teasing glimpses of fight training on the not-yet-released Matrix sequels. Of greater interest is the sheer depth of filmmaking coverage, with intelligent and amusing anecdotes and insights from all the major players (including graphic artist Geof Darrow, given overdue credit for his outstanding conceptual designs). Fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping is also a fascinating subject, and his early action-blocking videos are included for comparative study. Another segment allows obsessive fans to express their fanatical zeal for all things Matrix, and a look at the in-production Matrix anime project gives them another source of inspiration. While you're pondering which pill to take (red or blue?), The Matrix Revisited should help you decide. --Jeff Shannon

Description

This just-completed project, a first-of-its-kind look at the development of a ground-breaking sci-fi trilogy, illuminates the phenomenal success of "The Matrix" with never-before-seen footage from the original film, new interviews with stars and filmmakers (Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, the Wachowski brothers, producer Joel Silver and fight choreographer Master Yuen Wo Ping), background on the origins of "The Matrix," how Academy Award®-winning special effects were developed and the actors' grueling training regimens. In addition, viewers will get a sneak peek of behind-the-scenes footage from "The Matrix's" upcoming sequels and a preview of "The Matrix" anime project including a first look at sketches, storyboards, interviews and footage with the animators. The DVD has more than three hours of hidden features including 188 minutes of music and seven minutes of concealed bonus video material.

Customer Reviews:

Needed.......2004-04-27

A much needed explaination disc full of information that was released after the 1999 movie. Great on it's own although really the extra disc that should have been made part of a two disc set.

Go to bed........2004-03-06

The making of the movie. It is also availible as a two-pack with the Matrix (if you can find it. Try www.deepdiscountdvd.com and search for "matrix".

The hidden features are neat, especially the jukebox. Lots of neat song on it.

There you are. go to bed..........

Before you buy it read this!!!.......2004-01-08

It sux
It doesn't even include the actual Matrix!!!!

DONT BUY IT

Are you people DAFT???.......2003-11-08

This is a documentary of the first matrix movie "The Matrix" not any subsequent releases. How can you be led to believe that this release is about the second film? If you actually watched it then you would know that it is about the first! so to the two of you that said it is a bad release because of bla bla about the second movie well that is BS.
this is a pretty good and extensive documentary!

An exhaustive (and exhausting) look at THE MATRIX........2003-07-09

Released before extras-stuffed DVDs were more and more the norm, THE MATRIX had a fairly thin selection of supplementary material: a couple of commentaries, a trailer, and that's about it. Rather than follow the "double dip" method, whereby the movie is released with a new set of extras, and forcing people to shell out for the same picture they already bought, the minds behind THE MATRIX produced THE MATRIX REVISITED, a completely separate DVD with all the "making of" goodies for which a film fan could ask.

THE MATRIX REVISITED consists primarily of a lengthy documentary on the development and production of the first film, and additional features drop hints concerning the new movies and about THE ANIMATRIX, a collection of animated shorts set in the fictional world of the matrix. Taken together, all of these materials will take viewers three hours or more to work through. Not a bad value at all.

It's true that THE MATRIX REVISITED won't be for all tastes. The documentary is exhaustive in its detail, even going so far as to discuss what fabrics were chosen for costumes inside and outside the matrix. Those with a low tolerance for extended forays into filmmaking geekery will doubtless find themselves bored stupid by the time this DVD stops spinning. There are no fight sequences to break things up here, and no profound revelations about the actors or the story they brought to the screen. Rather, THE MATRIX REVISITED is pure trivia. It's interesting trivia, but it's still trivia.

This dearth of fun material on the disk is a side effect of THE MATRIX REVISITED's release as a standalone product. If all of this had come with the original film attached, then viewers could excuse the excess. After all, the buyer would have picked up THE MATRIX and gotten all the rest of this as a bonus. Even if he or she never watched it all, so what? Purchased separately, though it sidesteps the dreaded double-dip, THE MATRIX REVISITED confers a sort of obligation on the buyer. If one buys the disk and doesn't watch every minute of it, one didn't get a very good deal.

Even die-hard MATRIX freaks will have some trouble getting excited after a while by handheld video footage of actors working out on a cold sound stage. There's a tiring sameness about the material in THE MATRIX REVISITED that sometimes makes watching it a trial. Thankfully the documentary has been structured in such a way that something truly interesting tends to pop up every few minutes. If the viewer can stay awake during the rest slow bits, these tidbits are a reward.

Customer Reviews:

Buy this with the 4-two disk sets and you have the ultimate.......2004-02-20

Buy this, along with the 4 2 disk Alien movies, and you've made your own VASTLY superior "Quadrilogy". This is far better and more fun to watch than the Quad 9th disk.

Fantastic chronology!.......2004-02-19

This is a fabulous sequencing of the movies, giving details on casting, interviews, and set design that no other special dvds have done. It contains material you will not see in the sets or the 9th Legacy disk. The best "extra" disk I have seen...bar none, because it does so in a interesting and well paced manner. A must for true fans.

A must for any fan of the Alien series........2004-02-19

I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD. It chronicles the 4 movies, leaning heavily on the first two movies, but giving enough credit to the 2nd two as well. John Hurt narrates, which is nice to hear a familiar voice. If you buy each movie in the double CE sets, you will get a 2nd disk detailing each movie in depth. These are great, but can get draggy. This Saga instead is quick and interesting...leaving out many of the boring details. I highly recommend this to anyone collecting the CE sets (which are MUCH nicer than the Quadrilogy, by the way)...to finish off their colleciton.

THE BEST ALIEN DOCUMENTARY EVER!!!.......2003-12-21

This is a great behind-the-scenes documentary told by the people who created the Alien films. It's much better than the doc on the Quadrilogy set. John Hurt narrates. Sigourney Weaver gives the definitive interview. All the principals, including Giger, are here. Best of all is the stylish editing and sound design. First rate production and sound. Great bonus extras, too. A great companion to the boxed set. Contains some materials and info not contained in the Alien Quadrilogy. Created by the same people who did "Behind the Planet of the Apes" and lots of other really grat docs. Highly recommended!

Just fodder that's been seen already..........2003-12-20

Sure, it has your garden-variety archival footage and a few nifty interviews sprinkled in but it just lacks an in-depth perspective that dedicated fans would find fulfilling. For instance, the interviews were nothing of substance, just a re-inforcement of what's been said about the films: Álien being óral male rape'for instance or Aliens being a vietnam in space wasn't anything suprising. Worst off is that they don't even have the deleted scene from Aliens where Ripley hands Burke a grenade that I personally haven't seen EVER and I've been a hardcore fan since '86. Granted, if you''ve just seen the aliens movies and aren't a too knowledgeable fan you should find it nice such as Carrie Henn being interviewed in present and Ripley's screen test (She gets topless in one of them), but they're still missing any analysis of Alien 3 scripts and didn't tell anything of how Fincher got tossed from the editing and finalizing of the film. Whatever you do, don't buy it. Instead, get the new Alien Quadrilogy instead and see the saga the way its meant to be.

Average customer rating:

"See Your Blind Spot" or "Hear the Music"
Media-Microwaved McLuhan
Ambitious, if flawed.

Mcluhan's Wake
Starring: Marshall McLuhan
Director: Kevin McMahon
Manufacturer: Disinformation
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ASIN: B000K7VIKY
Release Date: 2007-01-23

Amazon.com

Taking Poe's "Descent Into the Maelstrom" as its central metaphor, this documentary about theoretician Marshall McCluhan covers basic biographical ground, but goes further to poetically illustrate McCluhan's concepts about relationships between humans and technology. Strained poeticism interferes with the focus on explanation, but fortunately there is enough footage of McCluhan speaking on talk shows and in the classroom to negate most damage done by cheesy segments of a sailor struggling through a hurricane, for example, or a suitcase floating through the ocean as if from a bad, early 1990s indie rock music video. Narrated by Laurie Anderson among others, McCluhan's Wake asserts that the philosopher's ideas have so infiltrated current mainstream ideas that we are nearly as unaware of his influence as we are oblivious to advertising's manipulative effects. Historically placing McCluhan as a Cambridge grad who by 1962 had become a kind of celebrity deemed "oracle of the electric age," McCluhan's Wake investigates his Laws of Media, or four questions McCluhan applied to any new media in order to reveal its future. The film's experimental segments reiterate McCluhan's fear that in his rebellion against media, he hypocritically exploited television media. Though lengthy digressions bog this film down, it is worth watching for its wealth of information on this thinker who felt that the only way to evade the technological maelstrom was to analyze it.--Trinie Dalton

Description

"The global village" and "the medium is the message" are among the most indelible phrases of our time, but few know their origins.

One of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, Marshall McLuhan devised these theories and countless others, and his culturally-significant ideas have only become more relevant as technology has evolved. Now, over twenty years after his death, in the midst of an era of Internet, virtual and wired technologies, MCLUHAN'S WAKE explores the enduring truth of his messages and teachings.

The first and ONLY DVD devoted to this singular personality.

We all live in Marshall McLuhan's wake. Fascinated by the role technology played in transforming our lives, McLuhan realized with stunning accuracy the impact the digital age would have on our social, spiritual, economic and ideological selves. Grounded in his last scholarly work, The Laws of Media, MCLUHAN'S WAKE is a visually dazzling and poetic film, translating these laws into an illuminating and revealing text, haunted by archival footage and the voice of McLuhan himself. A documentary like no other, MCLUHAN'S WAKE also features commentary by scholars Eric McLuhan (Marshall's son), Neil Postman, Lewis Lapham and journalist Patrick Watson.

Deepening the viewing experience, McCLUHAN'S WAKE features over 100 minutes of fascinating and unique extras, including:

* Interactive Tetrads - Exploring technology via McLuhan's Laws of Media.
* "The Descent into the Maelstrom" - Bonus short animated film of Edgar Allan Poe's story.
* Exclusive interviews with Corinne McLuhan, Eric McLuhan, Neil Postman, Lewis Lapham, Edmund Carpenter, Gerald O' Grady, Phillip Marchand, Frank Zingrone and Patricia Bruckmann.
* More than an hour of vintage McLuhan audio clips.
* Gallery featuring photographs of McLuhan and some of his mind-bending aphorisms.
* Original music soundtrack composed by Kurt Swinghammer.
* Hundreds of pages of printable text, including a McLuhan dossier, director's notes and original shooting script.
* Study guide for McLuhan's Wake.

Customer Reviews:

"See Your Blind Spot" or "Hear the Music".......2007-05-25

This hour-and-a-half video documentary is engaging and challenging. It's a good introduction into the outlines of Marshall McLuhan's life and thought.

Canadian-born McLuhan is most famous for either originating or at least popularizing two statememts: "the medium is the message," meaning that the means or medium of communication one uses to say something are just as important as what one is trying to say, and the "global village," meaning that electronic communication (telephone, radio, television, and now internet) is bringing everyone into communication with everyone else.

The two main themes brought out by this documentary are:

1) from a paper McLuhan wrote in 1947 at age 36, fairly early in his career as a professor of English literature, about a poem from Edgar Allan Poe entitled the "Maelstrom" which describes a sailor caught in a giant whirlpool who eventually saves himself from drowning through detached observation of the vortex; modern electronic media have become the vortex from which McLuhan would like to show us how to rise above,

and 2) a theme from the work in McLuhan's last decade of life in the 1970s, when he was in his 60s, called the "tetrad" of the "Laws of Media." The four questions or tetrad of questions that can be asked about any media or artifact of man is what does it enhance, what does it make obsolete, what does it retrieve, and what does it reverse or flip into? In the interactive section of the DVD "McLuhan's Wake," the viewer can practice looking for answers to these four questions; for example, the interactive portion shows that electricity enhances visible space, makes obsolete candles and the "mystery" of darkness, retrieves daylight activities, and reverses into a kind of "blindness" either when the illumination becomes all-encompassing or when there is a power-blackout.

These two themes, the vortex of the maelstrom and the tetrads, appear again and again throughout the documentary.

The DVD documentary starts with a hauntingly beautiful and stark animation sequence of the sailor surviving the vortex.

The musical score for the documentary at times alternates between a kind of dreamy, watery world vs. a mechanical beat.

The scenes of common urban life in Canada become the "Everyman" for which any viewer can envision himself in his own enviroment. Also throughout the documentary, though various ideas are illustrated with scenes of life in Canada again, we are shown the multi-racial, multi-ethnic side of Canada--- this draws the viewer into the global aspects and scope of McLuhan's ideas and observations.

"McLuhan's Wake" DVD has many more extras than the typical DVD. The extras alone are worth the price of the DVD. There's a separate 12-minute film interview with McLuhan's widow. For those who want the "pure" McLuhan without having to go through the lens of the "McLuhan's Wake" documentary, the DVD has two half-hour audio lectures of McLuhan. And beyond that, there is a further 6 hours of audio recording of students, colleagues, as well as his son, all speaking about McLuhan.

McLuhan was famous for uttering one aphorism or sound-bite after another. So to leave you with a sample from the documentary DVD "McLuhan's Wake," here are two examples heard there: regarding the "global village," McLuhan says that we "no longer have to be anywhere to do everything," and finally, we hear McLuhan say "Nothing is inevitable provided we are prepared to pay attention."

Media-Microwaved McLuhan.......2007-04-18

If you are completely unfamiliar with the work of Marshall McLuhan, then this might be a good place to start. However, this film is so elementary in tone--sometimes to the point of assuming that the viewer is moronically incapable of grasping big ideas--that it often comes across as insulting to one's intelligence. The narrator, for instance, often speaks very slowly, as though she were addressing the mentally handicapped. This might be all right for a video about sign language or learning the alphabet for three-year olds, but it is decidedly the wrong approach for this subject matter.

Indeed, the director has made quite a few mistakes here, one of which is to weave into the narrative a series of spectacularly bad graphics regarding Poe's "Descent Into the Maelstrom" as an attempt at a leitmotif for understanding McLuhan's work. However, the viewer often finds himself cringing, or scowling,whenever this graphic appears onscreen. Another mistake, and this is a big one, was not to allow McLuhan to explain himself more often in the picture. He is stripped down to the occasional soundbite, and often his voice on the soundtrack will articulate a single sentence which those who are familiar with McLuhan's work know would be greatly illuminated by hearing the sentence embedded within a larger context of elocution. But McLuhan, though he is often onscreen--his frequent appearances on television are shown in quick clips--is never there for long enough to articulate more than a sentence or two, and this does him a great disservice, since McLuhan was the kind of thinker whose ideas are best illuminated by listening to him for long stretches at a time. Consequently, the viewer never really does get a feel for his personality, since one rarely sees him interacting with interviewers for very long. Yet another problem is that there is too little discussion of his ideas. An attempt is made to boil down his thinking into his media tetrads, which he actually only formulated toward the end of his life and which, brilliant though they may be, are not representative of McLuhan's overarching thought about media. There is, for instance, no discussion of the notions of media hot and cool, or cultural implosion, or how artists create counterenvironments to make invisible environments visible.

In short, the film is an ironic confirmation of Neil Postman's critique about the incompatibility of ideas with electronic media, for once ideas are accelerated to lightspeed, they are automatically transformed into infotainment. In celluloid or on televsion, ideas are hi-jacked by images and jazzy graphics which are constantly thrust upon the viewer to engage his attention. As a result, ideas wither and atrophy, while slick, glossy images proliferate, and the viewer is misled into believing that learning is all about being entertained.

The medium truly IS the message.

--John David Ebert
author, Celluloid Heroes & Mechanical Dragons: Film as the Mythology of Electronic Society

Ambitious, if flawed........2007-04-07

'McLuhan's Wake' is the new DVD release of a 2002 film by Canadian documentary director Kevin McMahon. It doesn't have a straightforward linear narrative, but has three main themes that cycle round each other: firstly, McLuhan's use of Poe's 'Descent Into The Maelstrom' as a metaphor for our current situation in relation to the "vortex" of technological change; secondly, McLuhan's 'Laws of Media'; and thirdly, a biographical strand reconstructed in the main from stills and TV clips. Laurie Anderson provides the main narration, with added commentary from the usual suspects: Eric McLuhan, Corrine McLuhan, Neil Postman, Phillip Marchand, Frank Zingrone, et al.

I've watched it twice now and I'd have to say it's flawed. For me, there are two main problems with it: one, the visual images don't always tie in with the ideas that they're supposed to be expressing. A lot of the footage is quite generic and could be about almost anything given the context, although I suspect much of this may be down to financial limitations (it being an independent production). Two, the sound track is mixed quite badly. The interviews are really the backbone of the film and they've often chosen to fade them in and out, which means you lose the end of sentences. Frustrating! Also, the mix leaves something to be desired. The voices don't always sit at the same level and the music is generally too loud.

Having said all that, it's great to have. There are loads of extras: a couple of hours of footage from the original interviews, hours and hours of audio (including two lengthy examples of McLuhan himself talking), and "hundreds of pages" of documents that include the Director's notes, McLuhan biog, shooting script, and--joy of joys--a study guide. There's a full set of subtitles, the navigation is well organized, and it's Region 0 encoded. Not bad for under twenty dollars!

So there we have it. It's not really a critical evaluation of McLuhan's work, but a serious and ambitious attempt to get McLuhan's complex ideas over to a non-specialist audience. If you've never read any of his books and want to know why Wired magazine named a middle-aged conservative and Catholic the "patron saint of the Internet", this is a good a place to start. It would also make an ideal introduction and resource for an undergraduate course teaching McLuhan.

Average customer rating:

"The bigger they the BIGGER they are"
ONE OF THE BEST MONSTER COMPS!!

Attack of the 50 Ft. Monster Mania
Starring: Bill Mumy , Cassandra Peterson , Ray Harryhausen , Donald F. Glut , and Forrest J Ackerman
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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Monster Mania
Bride of Monster Mania #2
All Monsters Attack
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The Classic Sci-fi Ultimate Collection (Tarantula / The Mole People / The Incredible Shrinking Man / The Monolith Monsters / Monster on the Campus)

ASIN: B00005OCL9
Release Date: 2001-10-16

Description

Host Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, brings viewers on an adventure of monstrous proportions. With razor-sharp teeth, deadly claws and giant feet, giant movie monsters have left their oversized imprints in film history. The terrifying one-hour special Attack of the 50 Foot Monster Mania showcases such films as King Kong and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, examining why giant monsters frighten us and why cultures from American to British to Japanese are so obsessed with the monster phenomenon. Highlights include spectacular clips and trailers from The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933), Mighty Joe Young (1949), Tarantula (1955), Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966), Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and many more; interviews with producer and special effects supervisor Ray Harryhausen, director and author Don Glut and numerous film critics and historians.

Customer Reviews:

"The bigger they the BIGGER they are".......2004-03-13

No stone was unturned when this document was made. This monster
mash originally aired on AMC's "monsterfest" a few years ago and
hosted by "Lost in space" television star Billy Mumy
This near hour long program covers all aspects of the big beast
on the movie and TV screen as well as Myth and folklore. From thier
primevil beginnings of George Miele's Trip to the moon & Lost world
to such recent nightmares as Starship troopers & Mighty Joe young.

In between, movie historians,technicians and seasoned authors give their "matter of fact" views on how the giant monster films
have not only progressed thru out the years but also we the film
goers have changed from the coming of world war II thru the drive
in craze, the television invasion and so fourth. Everytime I get
to watch this disc I end up watching"Attack of the crab monsters"
or"Earth vs. the spider" right after. Peppered with endless clips
this dvd is a must for any true giant monster movie collector.

ONE OF THE BEST MONSTER COMPS!!.......2001-11-20

This is an excellent DVD. If you want to see all of your favourite atomic age (and beyond) monsters in one place without sitting through the familiar plots and dialogue of the original movies, this is the place to come. A quick fix of giant insects and tarantulas, 50 ft women and astounding colossal men. Teenagers taking on gargantuan gila monsters and monster spiders, Godzilla and his Toho buddies, Harryhausen creatures.......there is a lot here in this fast-moving doco narrated by Billy Mumy and hosted by Elvira, looking as enticing as ever!!. In fact, the only problem with this disc is that it ends too quickly!! It would have been great if the 56 minute running time could have been stretched another 30 minutes with a few choice trailers but don't get me wrong....there is a lot of ground covered here with the many movie clips and short interview segments. It's so good you don't want it to end. Great picture quality, too. Trailer comps usually feature scratchy, often faded, film clips. Not so here! The pictures are sharp and clear. Do yourself a favor and buy it NOW. Me, I'm gonna watch it again.

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

Tai Chi by Adam Hsu Volume 2

Jesse Ventura Story

Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness [2 Discs] [2003] (REGION 1

DVD: Slapstick Masters

Cocktail