Celine Dion: Live in Las Vegas - A New Day (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)That Celine Dion is one of the most generous and sincere artists in music today is pretty well-known. While she has taken a beating from the media and from detractors for being over-the-top in some of her vocals, a bit too dorky in her performances and in interviews, she has remained (sans the chest-beating) true to herself and to the music and fans that made her famous.
This DVD set is not only for those who saw the show and want a copy of it to remember, or for those who didn't get to see it and wanted to, but it really feels first and foremost like a gift to her die-hard fans. Most others wouldn't care for the extended amount of footage (over 3 hours worth) dedicated to the trivia about the show, its creation, execution and evolution over the past four years.
I did see the show twice in 2003, and feel that the DVD does a wonderful job of recreating the experience, but if you didn't get to Vegas and sit in the theater that was specifically built for this show, it's not the same.
A couple of other differences for those who saw the show: Nature Boy was omitted as the opening and swapped out for the more appropriate "A New Day Has Come" .. I always thought it was odd that the title song from the show was not sung back in 2003. Also removed is the tacky and ill-fitting cover of "Fever", but added in are "Love Can Move Mountains" (one of my favorites of hers of all time) and "River Deep, Mountain High" in full Tina Turner Tribute mode.
I do regret the omission of two of my personal favorite songs from the shows I saw in 2003 - Je'taime Encore (I Love You Still), one of her most haunting French-language songs she's ever recorded, and the show-ending "What a Wonderful World" that, as she sang it, had black and white photos of people from the audience on the giant LCD screen behind her. It was a touching and intimate way to end a very theatrical production. You CAN, however, get both of the audio recordings of these two songs on the live CD of the show that was released a few years back.
The fan tribute on here, while often cheesy, is also an endearing look at some of her biggest fans. That Celine was gracious and kind as she met personally with them all, moved to tears by some of their personal 'thank you's to her, underscores the grace and humility that accompanies the great gift of song she received.

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An unprecedented 5 year run! More than 700 sold out shows! 3 million spectators! Everything about the record -breaking show that changed the history of entertainment scene in Las Vegas! This 2 setBlu-ray Disc includes Celine Dion's show in the colosseum at Caesars Palace and three exclusive documentaries: Travel to Las Vegas with the fans- join Celine at home, in her car, in her dressing room and even backstage - find out all the secrets of "A New Day" More Than 5 hours of Never Before Seen Footage Blu-ray Disc Trackslisting: 1.A New Day Has Come 2.The Power Of Love 3.It's All Coming Back To Me Now 4.Because You Loved Me 5.To Love You More 6.I'm Alive 7.I Drove All Night 8.Seduces Me 9.If I Could 10.Pour Que Tu M'aimes Encore 11.I Surrender 12.Ammore Annascunnuto 13.All The Way 14.I've Got The World On A String 15.I Wish 16.Love Can Move Mountains 17.River Deep, Mountain High 18.My Heart Will Go On Disc 1 The Concert (93 minutes)Because You Loved Me - A Tribute to The Fans (41 minutes) Disc 2 A New Day: All Access (120 minutes) A New Day: The Secrets (53 minutes) Video/Audio:Mastered in High Definition PCM (uncompressed) Stereo (48kHz/24bit) Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround Sound (96 kHz/24bit) Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (448kbps)

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High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Deluxe Extended Edition + Digital Copy + DVD and BD Live) (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)The movie is truly amazing! (And it`s an extended edition!) Anyone who liked the first two will literally fall in love with this one! I think that even if you didn't see the first two, you will like this one because of what it talks about. This movie is about something we all go through: saying good-bye to our friends after high school. Addiotionally, it's nice to see ateen movie that doesn't revolve around sex, drugs, violence, and profanity.
The East High Wildcats decide to put on their final show together at their school: a musical about their twelfth grade experience. It'll be a pretty unique musical because, for once, they won't have to play a character - they'll be playing themselves! But due to her incredible intelligence, Gabriella, the female protagonist, is offered to skip her senior year in high school and go to straight onto college right away. Will she accept Standard's offer, leaving her friends, boyfriend, and the musical behind? Will Troy, the male protagonist, chose to continue with basketball or will he chose a career than involves acting? Will Sharpay win a scholarship to New York's Julliard University of Performing Arts or will her brother? Will Ryan and Kelsi find true love? Find out in this exciting conclusion to one of the world's greatest film series! The only good thing recently produced by the screwed-up Disney Channel! Yes I hate Disney Channel, Hannah Montana, Cory in the House, Jonas Brothers, and all of the other inappropriate teen shows they've decided to put on a children's channel. But High School Musical is different. It teaches both kids and teens a valuable lesson and it allows adults to revisit their past. The plot is actually relevant to what many people feel and...it's a teenage musical! You don't see something like that everyday! Just watching Troy and Gabriella perform a beautiful waltz is reason enough to buy this film. Also, the old fashioned music at the end proves that rap, hip hop, and pop isn't always what you'll see in a teenage film.
The songs are as original, catchy, and wonderful as they are visually stunning! During "Scream," the turning walls that represent Troy's confusion are spectacular! The disappearing pictures on the wall in Gabriella's solo "Walk Away" were really quite sad. The Statue of Liberty that shoots fireworks out of its head in "I Want It All" is amazing. The sets in "A Night To Remember" will leave you with your mouth wide open. "Right Here Right Now," "Can I Have This Dance," and "Just Wanna Be With You" are three incredible romance songs. And, of course, Troy and Chad turning into little boys in "The Boys Are Back" was really cute. That reminds, "Right Here Right Now" and "The Boys Are Back" are so of my favorites because of what they talk about: not wanting to grow up. Anyway, n case you forgot or are too lazy to read the customer reviews for the HSM3 soundtrack, here are the songs:
1. "Now Or Never" - Troy and the Wildcats basketball team
2. "Right Here, Right Now" - Troy and Gabriella
3. "I Want It All" - Sharpay and Ryan [A TRUE BROADWAY SONG!]
4. "Can I Have This Dance? (Version I)" - Troy and Gabriella
5. "A Night To Remember" - cast!
6. "Just Wanna Be With You" - Ryan & Kelsi, Troy & Gabriella
7. "The Boys Are Back" - Troy and Chad
8. "Walk Away" - Gasbriella
9. "Scream" - Troy
10. "Can I Have This Dance? (Version II)" - Troy and Gabriella
11. "Senior Year Spring Musical" ***made up of reprises of NOW OR NEVER (Chad, the Wildcats basket team, cheerleaders), I WANT IT ALL (Ryan), JUST WANNA BE WITH YOU (Sharpay & Jimmy, and later Troy and Gabriella), and A Night To Remember (Sharpay vs. Tiara), as well as a new song: Last Chance (Ryan and Kelsi)***
12. "We're All In This Together" - cast!
13. "High School Musical" - cast!
14. "Just Getting Started" - during the end credits, winner of the Get In The Picture ABC7 contest
By the way, during the "I Want It All," you actually see Gabriella The Maid a bit more than you did in the theaters because you see that part of the song in a different camera angle than you did in theaters. That also lets you see an important-looking lady giving Ryan a newspaper with him and Sharpay on the cover. This is not due to the extended edition thing because the song is the same length, but, like I said, the camera angle is different so you see more things.
The special features on this Blu-ray are freakin' cool! Even though it's a single disc release, it has the exact same content found on the Two-Disc release, plus more! These are the Special Features (the last two aren't found on the two-disc release).
-- Extended Version Of The Movie
-- Optional Sing Along Version
-- Bloopers
-- Deleted Scenes
-- "Cast Goodbyes" feature
-- "Night Of Nights" feature
-- "It's All In The Dress" feature
-- "Senior Awards" feature
-- New Cast Profiles
In addition, just like in the Two-Disc release, you can download a digital copy of the movie. And as if that weren't enough, it comes with the first disc of the Two-Disc Edition!!!!! Now you can watch the movie practically anywhere because you have the regular version as well as the Blu-ray version!!!! What do you know, it is a two disc after all. ^_^

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It's time to celebrate as Disney's phenomenal High School Musical hits new heights in High School Musical 3: Senior Year! Fresh from the big screen, this motion picture extravaganza delivers non-stop entertainment from start to finish! It's almost graduation day for high school seniors Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Chad, Ryan and Taylor - and the thought of heading off in separate directions after leaving East High has these Wildcats thinking they need to do something they ll remember forever. Together with the rest of the Wildcats, they stage a spring musical reflecting their hopes and fears about the future and their unforgettable experiences growing up together. But with graduation approaching and college plans in question, what will become of the dreams, romances, and friendships of East High's senior Wilcats?Find out what happens to all your favorite characters in the big screen musical sensation, High School Musical 3: Senior Year! It s a fabulous celebration the whole family will love! Disc 1:
Includes extended version of the movie and all of the bonus features from the 2-Disc DVD
Plus, Exclusive Blu-ray Bonus Features including: Senior Awards, New Cast Profiles, BD Live (includes BD Live Photo Feature)
Disc 2:
DisneyFile Digital Download Copy Disc: Watch your DVD disc in the living room and your DisneyFile digital copy on the go
Disc 3:
DVD copy of the Extended Movie
Special Features: *Extended Version of the Movie *Cast Goodbyes *Bloopers *Deleted Scenese *Night of Nights *It's All in a Dress *Sing-Along Mode *Senior Awards *New Cast Profiles

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Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been using the Digital Video Essentials DVD to calibrate my TVs for quite a few years and I've always loved the results, so when I heard that a Blu-Ray edition was coming, I was ecstatic.
Well, now that I've got it, it still does an excellent job, but for owners of the DVD edition, you're really not getting anything new. Almost everything on here is directly from the original DVD, only remastered in 1080p. There are a few things that have been added that pertain to LCD technology and explanation of the HD color standards, but the vast majority of content is exactly the same as the DVD.
The one thing that is a definite improvement over the DVD edition is the menu system. Instead of being forced to fast-forward through explanations to get to the test patterns, now you can bring up the pop-up menu and select a test pattern directly. So, once you've learned how to use the test patterns, you don't have to watch the explanations again in order to get to them.
So, if your Blu-Ray budget is a little short and you already own the DVD edition, then I'd say just stick with what you've got. After calibrating my TV again with the new Blu-Ray edition, I ended up with the exact same settings that I achieved with the DVD, so in that respect, you're not going to get a more enhanced calibration with the Blu-Ray edition. Apart from that, I'd say its worth it just for the improved menu system, if you don't mind re-purchasing basically the same thing over again.
If you don't own the DVD, I'd say buy this immediately, but don't let the "HD Basics" tagline fool you. This can be pretty technical if you've never used a disc like this before. Just take your time, watch all the intro videos (and there's a lot to the intros), and you should be fine.

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Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)The impression that "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" gives is that it's a bubbly, bright, and--for all intents and purposes--meaningless sequel to the first film. To my relief, it follows the example set by its predecessor, a surprisingly levelheaded friendship story. Four years after discovering a magically fitting pair of jeans, best friends Tibby Tomko-Rollins (Amber Tamblyn), Carmen Lowell (America Ferrera), Lena Kaligaris (Alexis Bledel), and Bridget Vreeland (Blake Lively) have returned for a second chapter that remains on perfectly equal ground with the first, focusing on coming-of-age issues like maturity, self-discovery, family, and love. Unoriginal ideas? Maybe so, but that doesn't mean they're any less effective. If anything, they make the film's message that much clearer. It helps that many of the girls' problems are based in reality--high school issues, like being pretty and popular, are pushed aside in favor of adult issues, like pregnancy scares and family crises.
If there's anything we learned from the first film, it's that the magic of the titular jeans was symbolic; by in large, the girls worked through their own ups and downs on their own, with no miraculous intervention other than their friendship with one another. We learn pretty much the same thing in this film, which sees each character facing new, more mature challenges. Let's begin with Carmen, who doubles as the film's bookend narrator. She now attends Yale, working as a stagehand for the theatre department. Her mother (Rachel Ticotin) has since remarried and is now pregnant with her second child. When Carmen's hopes of spending the summer with her friends are dashed, she decides to join a Shakespearian theater company in Vermont with a prima donna named Julia (Rachel Nichols). Once there, a British actor named Ian (Tom Wisdom) coaxes Carmen into auditioning for "A Winter's Tale"; to her shock--and to Julia's horror--she's cast as Perdita. As rehearsals continue, she begins to fall in love with Ian.
Next, there's Bridget, who plays Soccer at Brown University. Lately, her interests have shifted to archeology. While on an expedition in Turkey, her instructor, Professor Nasrin Mehani (Shohreh Aghdashloo), opens her eyes to the fact that she's only running away from her past. Bridget, it seems, is still haunted by the suicide of her mother. And her relationship with her father (Ernie Lively) is worse than ever; before leaving for Turkey, she discovered a box full of letters her grandmother had written her, letters her father wanted to keep hidden. Returning to the United States, Bridget takes a bus to Alabama and finally meets her grandmother, Greta (Blythe Danner), an accommodating woman with a matter-of-fact outlook on everything, including her daughter's mental illness.
The next in line is Tibby, who continues to pursue her filmmaking dreams at NYU. Forced to stay in New York for the summer to rewrite her screenplay, she gets a job at a local video store. She's now dating Brian McBrian (Leonardo Nam), who was introduced in the first film as the "Dragon's Lair" champion. When their relationship is threatened (for reasons I won't reveal), Tibby begins to wonder if she was meant for happiness. She does put up a wall every time she gets close to someone, and that's because, deep down, she believes that those you love the most will eventually abandon you. Her attempts to get sympathy from Carmen are flatly rejected; she doesn't appreciate how uncommunicative Tibby has been all summer.
Finally, there's Lena, who attends an art college in Rhode Island on a scholarship. Heartbroken after breaking up with her Greek boyfriend, Kostos (Michael Rady), she reverts to her old timid ways. She then meets Leo (Jesse Williams), the male model hired to pose nude in her art classes. It isn't long before they fall in love, although we suspect it's for all the wrong reasons. All she really knows about Leo is that he's a nice guy, and he's incredibly handsome. But does she know what she wants out of life? Does she even know who she is? How can know she when she's torn between two men?
Naturally, the pants themselves have to play a part in this story, and indeed, they're continually FedEx-ed from friend to friend. The question is: Do any of them need the pants anymore? You'd think that, at this point, a pair of old jeans traveling the world would reveal itself as a big metaphor. They may realize that by the time the film ends. I'm not entirely sure, though.
Moments of this movie are perhaps a little too sentimental, and the general plot may be a little too formulaic. At times, the dialogue is a bit contrived. Consider this conversation: When Tibby says drearily, "I suck at relationships. I should have been a guy," Lena calmly responds, "A guy wouldn't care about sucking at relationships." Only best friends in a coming-of-age story could get away with lines like that. Then again, I never expected a reinvention of the wheel. Movies like "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2"--and its predecessor--are aimed at a very specific audience, namely teenage girls; if they can get something out of it other than the sight of four young women looking pretty, if they can leave the theater understanding the more complex aspects of the story, then the filmmakers can include all the predictable dialogue they want. I think this movie will get the job done, not merely for teenage girls, but for anyone open to the idea.

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SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS 2 - Blu-Ray Movi

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Spears & Munsil High-Definition Benchmark Blu-ray Disc Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I suppose I really should have chosen a different title for my review as I have not tried the Digital Video Essentials one; however, I have tried Avia, one from Monster, and of course the THX and Disney optimizers that come on various dvds, and this one makes those look like a joke. It's easy to navigate through the various test patterns, and within each pattern is readily available help information with correct and incorrect examples to give you an idea of what you should be looking for. I found the majority of them easy to use and helpful, though I must confess that with a couple of them (I think one was the chroma one) I couldn't tell any difference, either with the examples or with the actual test pattern. Additionally, some of them (e.g., the cadence ones) seemed to me essentially pointless in that they tested performance aspects not readily correctable; however, I suppose they would be useful for deciding whether or not to keep or return a product. With this disc, I was able to dial in a noticeably improved picture. I personally don't care about the lack of audio test tones as I leave audio calibration up to Audyssey and my receiver, but the DTS Master Audio and to a lesser extent the Dolby TruHD clips are fun. Oh, yeah, and they include the blue filter glasses too, which is great. Not having the glasses included in any of the calibration discs I have bought previously, until now I had always just skipped over those patterns. I highly recommend this calibration disc. It has given me confidence that I am getting the best performance possible from my setup.

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