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Graves – Season One (2016)

Graves – Season One (2016)

by | Feb 16, 2017 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

A fine TV series about an ex-president who is having second thoughts about his time in The White House. Graves – Season One (2016) Actors: Nick Nolte, Sela Ward, Skylar Astin, Helen Yorke, Chris Loewll Directors: Joshua M. Stern, Bob Balaban, Robert Weide, Iain B. MacDonald, Frank Coraci Studio: Kingsgate/ Lionsgate (2/7/17) [3 discs] Video: 1.78:1 for 16:9 screens, color Audio: English 5.1 DD Subtitles: English SDHExtras: : ”What Fresh Hell Is This?!”: Making Graves Season One, Family Dynamics: The Acting Ensemble, Gag Reel Length: Approx. five hours Rating: ****1/2 Nick Nolte does a terrific job (one of the nominees for Best TV Actor in the current Academy Awards) portraying a former two-term conservative president who embarks on a Don Quixote-like quest to right some of the wrongs of his administration and to reclaim his legacy 25 years after he was out of the White House. One of the writers said they tried to put Nolte somewhere in between George Bush and Clinton. He and his wife live on a compound in New Mexico, where most of the ten-episode film series was shot. Living with them are Graves’ right-hand young man Isiah, and an older daughter and a son who […]

Hell or High Water, Blu-ray (2016)

Hell or High Water, Blu-ray (2016)

by | Nov 15, 2016 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

Hell or High Water, Blu-ray (2016) A thriller of a western and bank robbery mashup film.   Cast: Chris Pine, Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster, Katy Mixon, Kevin Rankin Studio: Lionsgate (11/22/16) (2 discs) Director: David Mackenzie Video: 2.40:1 for 16:9 screens, 1080p HD color Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, DD 2.0 compressed for late-night listening, Spanish DD 5.1, SDH descriptive audio Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish Extras: Enemies Forever: The characters of Hell or High Water, Visualizing the Heart of America, Damaged Heros: The performances of Hell or High Water, Red Carpet Premiere, Q&A of Filmmakers Length: 122 min. Rating: ****1/2 This basically is a story set in West Texas of two brothers who turn to robbing banks to save their family’s land, with Jeff Bridges playing one of the two Texas Rangers out to stop them. Chris Pine is great as the more intellectual, good guy of the two brothers, and turns to his brother (who is just out jail and loves to shoot people and get in fights) in order to rob four small banks in their area to get money to save his family ranch from foreclosure for his two boys (he is divorced and hasn’t paid his […]

East Side Sushi (2016)

East Side Sushi (2016)

by | May 29, 2016 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

A heartwarming story about never giving up on your dreams. East Side Sushi (2016) Cast: Diana Torrese, Yukata Takeuchi, Rodrigo Clark Director: Anthony Lucero Studio: Sony Pictures 47500 (5/6/16) Video: 1.78:1 for 16:9 screens, 1080i HD color Audio: English DD 5.1 Subtitles: French, English, Spanish, English SDH Extras: Deleted scenes, “Behind the Sushi,” “Behind the Music” Length: 106 min. Rating: **** This engaging feature got a 100% score at Rotten Tomatoes. It concerns a Latino single mother who lives with her small daughter and her father. She has run a fruit-vending cart for years but is just not making it. She passes a Japanese restaurant which is looking for workers and is intrigued by both the food and security and benefits. She even learns to fuse sushi with her own Mexican culture and becomes a professional sushi chef. She is aided in her quest by a friendly Japanese sushi chef in the restaurant, but the owner of the place shuts her out not only due to her race being wrong but also because she is a woman. She fights back, and even takes part in a TV show competition, where she comes in second. But in the end she is […]

El Sistemo 40: A Celebration – The Simon Bolivar Sym. Orch. of Venezuela/ Gustavo Dudamel – DGG

El Sistemo 40: A Celebration – The Simon Bolivar Sym. Orch. of Venezuela/ Gustavo Dudamel – DGG

by | Feb 1, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

Gustavo Dudamel and his Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela celebrate 40 years of El Sistema. El Sistemo 40: A Celebration – The Simon Bolivar Sym. Orch. of Venezuela/ Gustavo Dudamel – DGG 479 4447, 63:52 *****: On a summer day in 1975, in a garage basement in Caracas, Venezuela, a man distributed musical instruments to 11 adolescents. He told them “You are making history”. The man was José Antonio Abreu – organist, economist, educator, politician – and the kids were the first participants in El Sistema, a truly phenomenal movement that has propagated around the world for four decades. It was Abreu’s political and economic skills that convinced the Venezuelan Health Department to fully fund what he referred to as a “social program”. In exchange for use of the instrument and lessons, each child promised to devote 20+ hours per week to practice – and to perform, as part of an orchestra, for family and community when ready. A version of El Sistema (officially “The National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela”) exists in most major countries around the world, and one of Venezuela’s major exports is orchestral players. Among the hundreds of thousands trained, one […]