DVD Collectors Online

Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) , a review by addicted2dvd

Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) Mill Creek Entertainment Director: Jean Yarbrough Length: 82 min. Rating: NR Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono Subtitles: None

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Stars:
Bud Abbott as Dinkelpuss
Lou Costello as Jack
Buddy Baer as Sergeant Riley/Giant
Dorothy Ford as Polly
Barbara Brown as Mother
David Stollery as Donald

Plot:
This musical comedy stars one of Hollywood's greatest comedy duos, Abbott & Costello, bringing to life the colorful tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Extras:

• Scene Access

(From Alphabet Marathon: The Unwatched Version on September 22nd, 2011)

Linda Linda Linda, a review by Tom

Linda Linda Linda (2005/Japan) IMDb | Wikipedia Viz Pictures (United States) Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita Writing: Length: 115 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85 Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Subtitles: English

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Stars:
Doona Bae as Son
Aki Maeda as Kyoko Yamada
Yu Kashii as Kei Tachibana
Shiori Sekine as Nozomi Shiroko
Takayo Mimura as Rinko

Plot:
Only three days before their high school festival, guitarist Kei (Yuu Kashii), drummer Kyoko (Aki Maeda of 'Battle Royale'), and bassist Nozumi (Shiori Sekine) are forced to recruit a new lead vocalist for their band. They choose Korean exchange student Son (Doona Bae of 'Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance'), though her comprehension of Japanese is a bit rough!

It's a race against time as the group struggles to learn three tunes for the festival's rock concert--including a classic '80s punk-pop song by the Japanese group The Blue Hearts called "Linda Linda"...

Extras:

• Commentary
• Production Notes
• Scene Access
• Trailers

This is far from a cinematic masterpiece, but I enjoyed this movie. It has a realistic feel to it. It is about a bunch of girls who are participating in an high school event as a rock band. In the beginning they are much in need of practice but improve over the course of the movie with a lot of practice.
The most fun part is the Korean exchange student they asked to be the singer as they were short of a vocalist. I found the interaction of the Korean girl with the others somehow hilarious.
What I always find amazing is, that when I watch Japanese live-action movies set in high schools, how much the environment and school events matches those in animes. This is what makes animes so good, as they often portray stuff as it were live-action.

Also a lot of familiar faces from movies like Death Note, Battle Royale and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.

Japanese trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFkk03xoHNI

Last 4 minutes of the movie (their performance at the school event):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQQUEicr6d8

Rating:

(From Two-Weeks Movie Marathon: Unwatched Movies on August 20th, 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)