Ink [Blu-ray]

Ink [Blu-ray] Review

I am glad I bought this film sight unseen, having only heard some good things in the alt. press. 'Ink' is not a major film, it didn't have a major release, or advertising. It was made by a couple in Colorado who wanted to make it. They raised the money to do the project themselves. Their friends helped. They made their own costumes, made their own music. The actors are mostly unknown, and up and coming.

I don't want to give away the plot hook, suffice it to say that Ink is a modern fairytale about fatherhood, told as a battle between forces of light and darkness, with the key players being a girl in a coma, and her estranged father. The supporting characters are the Storytellers, beatific beings who give people good dreams, and the Incubus, dark beings who give people nightmares. And then there is the enigmatic Ink, who carries Emma into the dreamrealm, to sacrifice her to the Incubus to insure his transformation into one of them. The how and the why is where the real drama of this film lies, and it's ultimate revelation is one the most emotionally profound moments of redemption in any film I saw of 2009. It brought me to tears. Finding it in such a small film is quite special.

I did find there was a confusing bit of character development in the film that felt like a cheat, but on repeat viewings realized the film uses a non-linear narrative device. The title of this review is the clue.

A word on the transfer: this film is quite beautiful in hi-def. Now, there are alot of overblown contrasts, image softening and color treatments, some heavy digital noise in the darkest segments, but detail is usually very sharp, if not striking. I found all of the photography choices quite clever, and lend to a strong nostalgic feel. The sound mix is very clear at low volume, except for the dialogue gets a little quiet near the climax. The music by director Jamin Winans is magisterial, and perfectly lends to the action and emotion of the story.

I can't recommend this film enough. Rent it. Buy it.

Ink [Blu-ray] Overview

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE meets SIN CITY in this high-concept visual thriller. John and Emma, father and daughter, are thrust into a fantastical dream-world battle between forces of good and evil in this allegorical tale of love, loss and the search for redemption.

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Ghost Whisperer - The Second Season

Ghost Whisperer - The Second Season Review

[note: this is a review of the series, not the DVDs so much]

So, this is what Jessica Love Hewitt is up to these days. I'm not a fan of ghost stories generally and would normally warn those who aren't to shy away from this series. However, if you can get by the ghosts, several of the episodes use the ghost story as a plot device to explore compelling HUMAN stories (somewhat like Hewitt's film "If Only"). As such, even if you don't like ghosts, read on:

The good:
In the episodes I've seen at least, the story with the ghosts provided a segway into a far more compelling human drama. For example, in one episode I saw, the ghosts torment a father and daughter who feel guilty over the mother's death. The emotionally compelling part of the episode was seeing the father and daughter deal with their guilt and frustration. Hewitt, as the ghost whisperer, indirectly helps these catharses.

Now, the bad:
The ghosts aren't subtle. With a few exceptions (generally shadows in a dark room), the ghosts look and act just like normal people, only that "only" Hewitt can see them. There's no especially pale skin, glow, or anything else to make the ghosts seem supernatural. Admittedly, this varies by episode, and some ghosts seem to have supernatural powers. Still, don't expect freaky special effects.

In short, if you like the type of sitcom/dramas generally shown on the WE channel, you might like Ghost Whisperer. Don't be too turned off by the ghosts in the stories (even if the ghosts can get snarky at times). However, this isn't a sci-fi series or comedy sitcom.

Ghost Whisperer - The Second Season Overview

Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt) communicates with earthbound spirits, ghosts who cling to the living because they have unfinished business that prevents them from moving beyond the familiar plane of existence that we call life. Inspired in part by the work of famed medium James Van Praagh and of Mary Ann Winkowski, a real-life communicator with spirits, GHOST WHISPERER explores the spiritual side of life and death as Melinda navigates among the dead and the living in her sometimes chilling, sometimes heart-rending and sometimes amusing attempts to act as an intermediary between the ghosts and those they haunt. Jim (David Conrad), her husband, worries about the emotional toll this work is taking on his wife as they embark on a new life together. Andrea, her friend and business partner in their antique store, is fascinated by Melinda's talent. Melinda is somewhat reluctant to reveal her "gift" to new friend Delia Banks (Camryn Manheim), a single mom who lives in Grandview, fearing the consequences of drawing her into this "unconventional" world. For her part, Melinda accepts her unique abilities as a blessing and sometime a curse, but always helps her clients--alive or dead--find emotional closure.

Ghost Whisperer - The Second Season Specifications

The second season of Ghost Whisperer--that cornucopia of spookiness, warmhearted crescendos, and cleavage-emphasizing outfits--strengthened the show's basic formula with tighter writing and engaging new characters. After an opening episode that resolves the first season's cliffhangers (with a black-hatted baddie and a beloved "earthbound spirit" in peril), our heroine Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt) launches forward with three new friends: Dr. Rick Payne (Jay Mohr, Jerry Maguire), a prickly, sarcastic professor of the occult; Delia Banks (Camryn Manheim, The Practice), a skeptical but warmhearted realtor who helps Melinda run her antique shop; and Delia's son Ned (Tyler Patrick Jones), a rebellious but goodhearted scamp. More significantly, the ratio of creepy thrills and beatific resolutions has been recalibrated to crank up the thrills. Which is good news--while helping ghosts find the light may be Melinda's reason for being, those happy endings are more satisfying when preceded by scary special effects and what-will-happen-next chills. On top of that, the show's creators carefully weave in a season-long story arc that culminates a three-episode conclusion (which, naturally, leaves plenty of questions open for the third season to investigate) involving a rival ghost whisperer whose motivations are not so selfless as Melinda's. Clearly, the show's fans were hungry for more of Melinda's stoic, hunky husband Jim (David Conrad); not only does he get many more opportunities to be unflinchingly supportive, he gets haunted by a supermodel and has a best friend who starts dating Delia. Stories range from a vengeful cheerleader to a phantom dog to an old boyfriend of Melinda's, who even in death hasn't gotten over her winsomeness. Most often people are haunted by family members and lost loved ones, who--though they knock things over, possess the living, and generally raise a ruckus--are almost always seeking forgiveness or to pass on sage advice. Through it all, Melinda summons her pluck and marches into danger wearing what seems to be an endless supply of flowy coats and low-cut party dresses. Ghost Whisperer is a love-it-or-hate-it show, and those who love it do so passionately. The show's creators reciprocate with an abundance of extras, ranging from earnest episode commentaries and behind-the-scenes docs to a series of "webisodes" of an internet serial about a bicycle delivery guy learning to cope with death to a peculiar "Jennifer Love Hewitt Speed Painting Video." --Bret Fetzer

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The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark)

The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark) Review

What a great collection.

I already wrote something about "Cat People" on its own DVD page at Amazon, but I wanted to say a couple of things about "The Seventh Victim," which is one of the bleakest films I've ever seen.

It begins with a Metaphysical poem about death ("I run to death and death meets me as fast / And all my pleasures are like yesterday") and never lets up.

A woman is reported missing, and her younger sister (played by Kim Hunter) goes to Greenwich Village looking for her - but not before the (dreary) boarding school administrators tell Hunter (an orphan) never to return.

Hunter discovers her sister's apartment contains nothing but a chair, over which is a hanging noose. And there's a murder. And a satanic cult. And two creepy guys on a subway with a corpse. And a dying neighbor. And three people in love with objects of desire they can't have. And an attempt to get someone to commit suicide. And a shower scene that momentarily seems to anticipate the famous scene in "Psycho." And then there's that ending.

And all of this occurs in just a little over an hour!

The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark) Feature

• Val Lewton, a famous RKO Radio Pictures producer, redefined the horror genre with low-budget, high-box office films. Now available are nine of these horrorics on DVD in the all new Val Lewton Horror Collection. Exclusive to the collection are a new documentary on the producer and 3 of the 9 films. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION Rating: NR Age: 053939727029 UPC: 

The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark) Overview

Val Lewton, a famous RKO Radio Pictures producer, redefined the horror genre with low-budget, high-box office films. Now available are nine of these horror classics on DVD in the all new Val Lewton Horror Collection. Exclusive to the collection are a new documentary on the producer and 3 of the 9 films.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Greg Mank with Simone Simon on Cat People and Curse of the Cat People, Kim Newman and Steve Jones on I Walked With a Zombie, Steve Haberman with Robert Wise on The Body Snatcher, Tom Weaver on Bedlam, and Steve Haberman on The Seventh Victim.
Documentaries:Shadows In The Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy
Theatrical Trailer

The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark) Specifications

Val Lewton's name is synonymous with the subtlest, most mysterious brand of horror filmmaking in Hollywood's golden age, and the nine horror classics he produced at RKO between 1942 and 1946 constitute the most remarkable cycle of creativity in B-movie history. (For the record, the Lewton/RKO legacy also includes two non-horror entries, Youth Runs Wild and Mademoiselle Fifi.)

Before becoming a film producer, the Russian-born Lewton was a prolific writer of pulp fiction, nonfiction, and a couple of pornographic novels. He also worked for years as assistant to David O. Selznick, a legendary producer with a distinctive personal signature--and a flair for grandiosity Lewton himself never emulated. It's ever so revealing that, on Selznick's Gone With the Wind, it was Lewton who came up with the idea for the famous rising shot of the Atlanta railyard filled with Southern wounded, with the Confederate flag streaming above--only he idly proposed it as a joke, never imagining that anyone would actually film such a spectacularly ambitious scene.

In 1942 Lewton left Selznick to undertake a series of horror films for RKO Radio Pictures. The studio would give him a budget around 0,000 per picture and a title RKO deemed to be grabby; Lewton would have a free hand as long as he stayed on budget, used the title, and gave the studio a salable movie of second-feature length (around 70 minutes). Over time, Lewton would increasingly have trouble with studio supervisors, but RKO was the right place for him. Although low in the pecking order among Hollywood majors, the studio made up for its lack of MGM-style glamour and Warner Bros. grit-and-gusto by working in a finely filigreed, almost miniaturist style. The art department under Van Nest Polglase and Albert S. D'Agostino was capable of exquisite artisanry, and in Nicholas Musuraca, a master of low-key cinematography and supple camerawork, Lewton found an invaluable collaborator in creating moody shadow-worlds where what you couldn't see was more disquieting than what you could.

He was also fortunate in having Jacques Tourneur to direct his first three efforts (they had teamed years earlier on the Bastille-storming sequence for Selznick's A Tale of Two Cities). They scored first time out of the gate with both a popular hit and a masterpiece: Cat People (1942). The story involves a pretty young Serbian woman in Manhattan (Simone Simon) convinced that her ancestors had practiced animal worship during the Middle Ages--and that she herself might shape-change into a lithe, ravening panther if her passions were aroused. The film is uncannily successful in keeping the viewer guessing whether this is a phobia borne of morbid obsession and sexual repression, or a genuine, horrific possibility. There are two sequences of matchless artistry and almost unbearable suspense--a lonely, echoing walk through pools of lamplight alongside Central Park, and a late-night swim in a deserted indoor pool--that build to throat-grabbing climaxes and remain milestones in the history of screen horror.

Many critics feel that the second Lewton-Tourneur endeavor, I Walked With a Zombie (1943), is both men's finest work. The title is so lurid that the heroine-narrator (Frances Dee) must shrug it off with her very first words, yet the movie is an amazingly delicate and poetic piece of spellbinding--nothing less than a reworking of Jane Eyre on a voodoo island in the Caribbean. Other horror aficionados prefer the more mainline ferocity of The Leopard Man (1943), an adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich story about a serial killer strewing corpses along the U.S.-Mexican border. Although on one level this is the Lewton film that veers closest to conventional mystery-suspense, there's no end of unsettling ambiguity (another black panther on the loose!) and hints of occultism and religious mania.

RKO promoted Tourneur to A-movies after this; Lewton would never again have so masterly a directorial partner. Yet in a weird sense (which is only appropriate), this underscores how much Lewton--with his wealth of arcane historical lore and storytelling archetypes, his quiet, patient attention to detail, and his taste for oblique narrative--was the essential auteur of all his films. Promoting first Mark Robson and then Robert Wise from the editing table, Lewton went on to make the deeply mysterious The Seventh Victim (1943) and The Ghost Ship (1943), two films in which such grotesque elements as Satan worship and murderous psychopathology are folded away inside eerily drifty, almost becalmed sleepwalks into eternal night. The Seventh Victim--a movie populated with more walking dead than Lewton's out-and-out zombie picture--is one of the cinema's supreme meditations on the ways lives brush against one another in the spaces of a great, impersonal city. And The Ghost Ship (the rarest of Lewton's films, owing to a ruinous copyright suit) is like a fever dream from which the viewer never awakens.

That's enough for a legacy, surely. Yet there remain The Curse of the Cat People (1944), a sequel that is not quite a sequel, a pretend-horror movie that's really a contemplation of the fragility of childhood; Isle of the Dead (1945), a doomed reverie about travelers who escape the Goya-esque chaos of a 19th-century war only to be beset with plague on a miasma-shrouded island; The Body Snatcher (1945), an atmospheric Robert Louis Stevenson adaptation that invokes the grisly history of graverobbers Burke and Hare, and supplies a together-again-for-the-last-time occasion for Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi; and Bedlam (1946), the Hogarth painting come to life to portray the real-life horrors of an 18th-century insane asylum. Bedlam's critical and box-office failure ended Lewton's quasi-independent status at RKO; he would live to make only three other, unsuccessful films.

James Agee, the premier American film critic of the 1940s, reckoned that Val Lewton was one of the three foremost creative figures in Hollywood--an assessment yet more impressive when we consider that the other two were Charles Chaplin and Walt Disney. His greatest films--Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Seventh Victim--are towering achievements, and even his half-realized projects are haunting experiences, the products of an utterly distinctive sensibility. This is an extraordinary collection. --Richard T. Jameson

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Create Fantasy Bedrooms For Kids

Creating a fantasy room for your child begins by making the child's imagination. If your children are playing make-believe (as most of the children) what they imagine to be: a rock star or movie star, an astronaut, the president of the United States, a captain, a dancer, a prince or princess, a knight in shining armor or a girl in distress, a deep sea diver or mountain climber, a driver of the car race, an Olympic gymnast, a super hero or super -Rogue? Once you know what fantasy to your child, it is relatively easy to design and create your own topic area on this basis.

The best way to get a custom bedroom fantasy is to build a theme, and the imagination of your child that makes you identify the problem, design the master. A central theme of the nursery to become chaotic, disordered mixture of every cool thing that catches the interest of the child. Instead, combiningThus the room down a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction that soothes the senses. Fantasy for this theme as the focus, you can choose the furniture, colors, surfaces and floors can be added, and other elements of the chamber ensemble, which reflect and reinforce the image of the imagination.

Speaking of connecting elements, Carpenter has given parents the creative element of the multi-functional furniture, one that functions in a compact, has several pieces. Mostpopular (and versatile) interior design of these innovations is the custom theme bed, needed to satisfy your child to delve into the world of her imagination and your needs as parents of accessibility, functionality, simplicity, l 'economic awareness of space, and - above all - safety.

A custom theme bed can double (or triple) as a structure of Playhouse covers an area of studies, the extra space for sleepovers, and other guests to sleep for the night and can be built to asYou need space d '.

At least one of the fantasies suggested earlier in this article can develop life with a custom theme bed for her spring. From custom bunk bed for your little prince or princess beds for your vehicle Custom NASCAR fan Treehouse little custom bedding for your favorite monkey jungle and again and again, the only limits the kind of idea that bring to life with a particular theme can bed of the middle of the room is yourImagination.

In this place, fleshing out the fantasy of sleeping with other accessories for children and accessories for the game is not only easy, it's fun! Bedding custom photos and images, exhibits from various collections, plants, rugs and mats, and more can combine forces to serve a greater good - to make that child a good sleep every night and wake up every morning with a dream.

Ghost Rider (Widescreen Edition)

Ghost Rider (Widescreen Edition) Review

If you follow the Ghost Rider comic book series, you will probably like this movie; if you've never been exposed to GR before, it might be a better idea to rent this one first.

Nick Cage does a good job of portraying the title characters complete detatchment from, and disreguard for, his own life, trying to come to grips with what he's been suckered into. The special effects are very well done, and overall this is a very good 'port' of a comic book story to the big screen.

Ghost Rider (Widescreen Edition) Overview

A young motorcyclist sells his soul to the Devil to save his father, and then to release himself from his obligation years later, he becomes the Ghost Rider to defeat the Devil's much more evil son, Blackheart.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 12-JUN-2007
Media Type: DVD

Ghost Rider (Widescreen Edition) Specifications

Once intended as a feature for Johnny Depp, the long-germinating feature film adaptation of Marvel Comics' cult title Ghost Rider stars Nicolas Cage as motorcyclist Johnny Blaze, who transforms into a skull-faced angel of vengeance to battle the forces of evil. Though perhaps a bit too mature for the role, Cage brings a degree of humor to the outrageous proceedings; he's well matched by the Easy Rider himself Peter Fonda, amusingly cast as Mephistopheles, the demon with whom Blaze strikes a bargain to save his father, and in turn, causes his transformation into Ghost Rider. Wes Bentley is also fine as Blackheart, the rebellious offspring of Mephistopheles, and Blazes' chief opponent in the film. They're joined by a solid supporting cast which includes Donal Logue, Eva Mendes, and Sam Elliott, but their participation and a relentless barrage of CGI effects can't hide the fact that the story itself, though largely faithful to its comic origins, is rife with clichéd characterizations and glum B-movie dialogue. Fans of the venerable title may cry foul over this adaptation (as they did over helmer Mark Steven Johnson's previous comic-to-movie feature, Daredevil), but less stringent viewers may enjoy the fiery visuals and Cage's typically quirky performance. --Paul Gaita

Stills from Ghost Rider (click for larger image)

Beyond Ghost Rider on Amazon.com

On Blu-ray

CD Soundtrack

Ghost Rider: Road To Damnation Graphic Novels

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Adding spice to your life with costumes Lingerie

Playing Dress-up, when we were young, we had the idea of a beautiful fairy princess or a famous movie star - it was magical moments that was so much fun and never forget. Now, as adults, we can act again, our fantasies, and a good way to do this is with costumes lingerie.

The charm of buying and lingerie wear costumes for adults can be the most exciting, sensual, erotic experience and the possibilities are endless. Negligees and fishnet stockings are sexylarge, but there is also the preferred option for the role-playing and fantasy lingerie costumes available today. With the right clothes and a little 'imagination, you become a nun, "Naughty, sexy librarian, or whatever you want. The possibilities are endless. Remember, always something else before you try Do not say: "for me." Lingerie Costumes not only feel good, but it can also stimulate the imaginationPartner.

Fantasy Lingerie and Costumes Adults:

Stores to the Internet, the online shopping and specialty packaging, the only limit is your imagination is when it comes to lingerie costumes for adults. Here are some (only a small selection) costumes available:

• Playful Naughty Nurses

• Sexy Librarian

• Adult Dorothy

• Sexy Cleopatra

• Now Flirtatious

• Lustful Devil

• Indian

• PoliceGender

Now we all have a good idea to add what the adult lingerie costumes, but some people do not know, they certainly can be a lot of fun and adventure in your relationship - with her commitment to the role have to play. With lingerie can costumes, your imagination is the only thing holding you back, how is the election indefinitely. Spice Up Your Sex Life with a particular person is as easy as slipping on a seductive lingerie costume and make your underwearFantasies.

Halloween is not the only time to wear a costume. Costumes underwear can be worn every time you want to secretly do something special, and a fantasy with a significant other, or for adding spice and variety to your bedroom routine. It is important to remember that taste is different, and you can have a refined and elegant manners, and those who are more daring. Many women enjoy a variety of costumes, lingerieAvailable according to their mood, really.

Today, women have no flashy clothes feel attractive. You can buy all kinds of clothing lingerie big to totally outrageous and sexy female line, and conservative. In this case, size is not very important, because the small extra-small lingerie costumes and go all the way up to extra large sizes. With the Internet you have a large selection of costumes, the clothes that you do not collect. When we feelsomewhat lower and unattractive, simply by typing in a length of clothes you feel beautiful. Call your partner and tell him that you have a surprise for him. Works every time.

Jack Brown Genius

Jack Brown Genius Review

Jack Brown Genius Overview

No description available for this title.
Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: PG13
Street Date: 10/13/09
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
Language: ENGLISH
Foreign Film: noSubtitles: no
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve

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