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Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes, a review by Danae Cassandra

Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes
2010, USA

A series of diamond heists, a beautiful singer framed as the crook, a dastardly villain on a black horse ... oh, heck, why do you need an overview of the plot?  It's a film titled Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes, that tells you everything you need to know.

We had been planning to watch Jiang cheng xia ri (aka Luxury Car) this evening, but events brought us home later than we planned, so there wasn't enough time for that film before bedtime.  So, instead, we watched this.

Now, I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan - and I love cartoons.  So, naturally, these two things came together and thus I have this on blu-ray.  It's a cute cartoon, and at just under an hour, exactly what was needed this evening.  There's a lot of laughs in the slapstick style of Tom and Jerry, and obviously this is set in a world where talking, anthropomorphic animals are not unusual, even if Tom and Jerry don't talk.  There were a lot of in-jokes, both for fans of Warner Bros. & Hanna Barbara cartoons, and for fans of Holmes.  It was fun catching them, and at some point I'll go back and watch it again and see if I spotted them all. 

This isn't great cinema, but if you're expecting that in a Tom & Jerry cartoon there is something wrong with you.  It's cute, it's funny, there's plenty of action and fun for everyone.  A very entertaining film and easily as good as the other Holmes cartoon I've seen (The Great Mouse Detective).

Overall: 2.75/5

(From Danae's reviews on March 31st, 2011)

Bridges of Madison COunty, a review by Eric

Bridges of Madison County


Click the pic for details

I've once heard an actress from Québec (Mahée Paiement) say on TV that this was her favorite movie.  Although she is quite pretty and sexy and I wouldn't describe her as the brightest star in the sky so knowing this his her favorite movie led me to having preconceived ideas about it being real chicky and therefore totally unworthy of my watching time.

Then sometime later while at my sister we were talking about movies and actors with her husband and while somebody mentioned Clint Eastwood and that movie came out again and was said to be very good.  Since Eastwood isn't a bad actor and Meryl Streep is a very good one, I figured maybe it was worth watching even if it's only to enjoy the performance of these two.

It is an interesting movie although not a great one in my opinion.  As I expected it is chicky and it's not something I would rewatch because I'm a real man but I wasn't disapointed by Streep's performance.  If you like romance, Eastwood and/or Streep, it's a good movie to watch, especially for M. Streep performance, she's as good as ever.

Rating:

(From Eric's DVD watching. on June 27th, 2008)

The Brady Bunch: The Complete Series, a review by addicted2dvd

CAST:
Robert Reed as Mike Brady
Florence Henderson as Carol Brady
Ann B. Davis as Alice
Maureen McCormick as Marcia
Eve Plumb as Jan
Susan Olsen as Cindy
Barry Williams as Greg
Chris Knight as Peter
Mike Lookinland as Bobby

This past Friday I watched the TV Movie Growing Up Brady. This instantly put me in the mood to watch this complete series set again. This is the second time for me to go through this set since I bought it 3 years ago. In only 6 days I watched all 5 seasons of the series.... and the bonus disc with contains 2 reunion movies and  2 episodes of the animated series The Brady Kids. This series started in 1969... the same year I was born. So while I never saw the original run of the series... like many people I grew up watching reruns. When I was a kid I never considered this to be a favorite series of mine... but good enough to watch. Then many years went by without me seeing any episodes. One day I walked in to find my daughter watching some episodes on TV with her grandmother. And she was enjoying it. So I decided to buy this set so she would have a chance to see the entire series. Ironically in the 3 years I have owned it she never bothered to watch the set. But as I was watching the set I found that I oddly enjoyed it more now then when I was a kid. I don't know... maybe it is a strong nostalgic thing. Maybe a reminder of simpler times. But it really grew on me.

Now, about this set...

The first thing to notice is the gimmicky packaging. In my opinion the packaging fails on all levels. It is not pleasing to the eye (come on... green shag carpeting!?!?). All the discs are housed in one (flower shaped) cardboard accordion envelope (Much like the two in the I Love Lucy complete series set). So I am always worried that the discs will scratch. In my personal opinion... the person that designed this packaging should have been fired as soon as he suggested it!

The discs themselves are the same discs that are in the individual season sets. So that means the only thing that makes this Complete Series set worth it is the addition of the bonus disc with the reunion movies and cartoons. Which I enjoyed the reunion movies a lot... so  that made it worth getting the set to me personally.

Of course the show itself is basically what you would figure from the time. A half an hour sitcom where all their problems are solved with a happy ending by the end of each episode (except for the handful of multiple part eps. of course.) The series did bring in quite a few familiar faces...

The Brady Bunch Guests:
- Marion Ross (Happy Days)
- Herbert Anderson (Dennis the Menace)
- Desi Arnaz, Jr.
- E.G. Marshall (The Defenders)
- Marcia Wallace (The Bob Newhart Show)
- David "Deacon" Jones
- Julie Cobb (Charles in Charge)
- Jackie Coogan (The Addams Family)
- Jim Backus (Gilligan's Island)
- Jay Silverhills (The Lone Ranger)
- Davy Jones (The Monkees)
- Don Ho
- Vincent Price
- Nicholas Hammond (Amazing Spider-Man)
- Joe Namath
- Melissa Sue Anderson (Little House on the Prairie)
- Ken Berry
- Natalie Schafer (Gilligan's Island)

The Bonus Disc...
As I said... there is 2 reunion movies which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately the whole gang wasn't completely brought back together for neither one of them. In the first reunion movie, A Very Brady Christmas, Susan Olsen didn't come back so the part of Cindy Brady was played by Jennifer Runyon. And then in the movie the Brady 500 (Which is actually the first 2 episodes of The Bradys edited together to make a movie) Maureen McCormick didn't come back... so the part of Marcia Brady was played by Leah Ayres.

While the 2 episodes of the animated series The Brady Kids was entertaining enough... they are my least favorite of the included extras. It isn't a cartoon I watched much as a kid.... so the interest just wasn't there for me as much.

Over-all I am glad I did add this set to my collection. The bonus disc makes the purchase worth it in my opinion. Though I don't know if I would double-dip this series just to get this bonus disc. If I already had the season sets I doubt I would have bothered.



(From The Brady Bunch: The Complete Series on November 17th, 2011)