DVD Collectors Online

Ratatouille, a review by Tom

Title: Ratatouille
Year: 2007
Director: Brad Bird
Rating: PG
Length: 111 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.39
Audio: English: PCM 5.1, English: Dolby Digital Surround EX
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Patton Oswalt
Ian Holm
Lou Romano
Brian Dennehy
Peter Sohn

Plot:
From the creators of Cars and The IncrediblesRatatouille for the first time with revolutionary clarity and spectacular audio enhancement. It's a rare treat you'll enjoy again and again.

Extras:
"Your Friend the Rat" & "Lifted" Shorts
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Scene Access
Trailers

Another really great Pixar movie! Highly recommended! A fun story and great animation.
As usual, Pixar make the human characters more cartoony, instead of trying to be ultra-realistic only to fail at it. The backgrounds/sets are really great.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on January 3rd, 2009)

Notting Hill, a review by Tom

Title: Notting Hill
Year: 1999
Director: Roger Michell
Rating: FSK-0
Length: 119 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, German

Stars:
Julia Roberts
Hugh Grant
James Dreyfus
Tim McInnerny
Gina McKee

Plot:
The life of a simple bookshop owner changes when he meets the most famous film star in the world.

Extras:
A Travel Guide to Notting Hill
Commentary
DVD-ROM Content
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers

This movie is a guilty pleasure of mine. Every time I watch it, I enjoy it just as much as the first time. This movie is filled some great funny moments. For example the scenes with James Dreyfus (before this movie known to me simply as Constable Goody from the Rowan Atkinson comedy series "The Thin Blue Line"). Or the first meeting of William's family and Anna Scott.
Also this romantic comedy has some nice touching moments, especially the ending.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on November 6th, 2008)

The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

What's the show about?
Sydney Bristow is a double agent. She works for supposedly covert branch of the CIA called SD-6 and for the real CIA. SD-6 is part of a larger group called The Alliance but only the high-level leaders know that SD-6 is not CIA. Field agents like Sydney are not supposed to know. Thus Sydney goes on whatever mission SD-6 sends her and the CIA gives her a counter mission to sabotage SD-6 without them knowing.

"Truth Be Told"
Sydney Bristow is a grad student who works part time at a bank. But the bank job is only a cover. She's an agent in a covert branch of the CIA and she hasn't told anyone about this. But when her boyfriend proposes to her she makes that fatal mistake. After she's come back from her next mission she finds him dead. SD-6 has killed him because he became a security risk. And when she doesn't come back to SD-6, they try to kill her, too. But luckily for her she has a father who also works for SD-6 and who saves her. After she's re-established her credibility with SD-6 she goes to the CIA and offers to work as a double agent.

My Opinion
I've only seen one season so far, but really liked it. There is a mystery element on the show in the form of artefacts the Italian inventor Rambaldi has built - in the 15th century (it's a J.J. Abrams show after all). Rambaldi has also made a prophecy and it is not clear yet whether it refers to Sydney Bristow or not (I assume that it will become clear in later seasons). Just like with Chuck I like it how they try to keep their public and their secret life apart and how it becomes more and more difficult to do that. But Sydney has also a cool number of disguises.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on September 4th, 2009)