Posts

Showing posts from January, 2018

Blu-ray Review: 'Dunkirk'

Image
This is a review of Warner Bros. Entertainment's Dunkirk three-disc Blu-ray/DVD/UltraViolet set. To read my July 2017 review of Christopher Nolan's film, check out this post: Movie Review: 'Dunkirk' On December 19, 2017, Warner Bros. Entertainment released the home media editions of  Dunkirk, director Christopher Nolan's World War II dramatic take on Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of nearly 400,000 British, French, and Belgian soldiers from the beaches at Dunkerque, a French port city on the English Channel coast, under unceasing Luftwaffe attacks and the threat of annihilation or capture by advancing German armies.     Nominated for eight Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Production Design) and winner of other accolades, including three Golden Globe awards (Best Picture - Drama, Best Director, and Best Original Score), Dunkirk is now available

Book Review: 'Message from Nam' by Danielle Steel

Image
(C) 1990 Dell Books Question: What do readers get when a romance novelist - Danielle Steel - attempts to push the literary envelope and creates a love story set in Vietnam-era America? Answer: Depending on one's particular tastes and sensibilities, either (a) a fascinating literary break from Steel's norm (glitzy love stories set in the world of the rich and famous) and a crowd-pleasing tearjerker/historical novel or, (b) a well-meant but vacuous exercise in fluff which awkwardly crams every tragic event in American history into a standard-issue "awakening of consciousness" story involving a Steel heroine who finds true love in the middle of a chaotic decade. 1990's  Message from Nam  represents Steel's first stab at trying to break out of her Problems Faced By Very Wealthy People in Life and Love mold and respectability as a more well-rounded writer of fiction.  As a writer aiming for a larger audience, Steel apparently figured that in the post- Platoo

'Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - The Radio Drama' Episode Review: 'Dark Lord's Fury'

Image
Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith (C) 1980 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Dark Lord's Fury Cast: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) See-Threepio (Anthony Daniels) Han Solo (Perry King) Princess Leia Organa (Ann Sachs) Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Willliams) Artoo-Detoo Chewbacca Darth Vader (Brock Peters) Lobot Boba Fett Imperial Commander First Trooper Second Trooper First Guard Second Guard Narrator (Ken Hiller) Reviewer's Note: All quoted material is from the 1995 Del Rey book  Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - The National Public Radio Dramatization.  This edition contains Brian Daley's complete radio play, which differs slightly from the version of the Radio Drama which aired on National Public Radio in 1983 and the original 1990s HighBridge Audio cassette and compact disc editions. The version in Daley's script  was  recorded, but as with the original 1981  Star Wars Radio Drama,  edits were made at the request of NPR due to the needs of the rad

'Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - The Radio Drama' Episode Review: 'New Allies, New Enemies'

Image
(C) 1993 HighBridge Audio and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) New Allies, New Enemies Cast: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) Han Solo (Perry King) Chewbacca Princess Leia Organa (Ann Sachs) See Threepio (C-3PO) (Anthony Daniels) Artoo Detoo (R2-D2) Lord Darth Vader  (Brock Peters) Boba Fett Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) Yoda (John Lithgow) Imperial Lieutenant Admiral Piett (David Rasche) Captain Lorth Needa (Nicholas Kepros) Sentry Cloud City Control Droid Trooper Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi (Bernard "Bunny" Behrens) Narrator (Ken Hiller) Reviewer's Note: All quoted material is from the 1995 Del Rey book  Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - The National Public Radio Dramatization.  This edition contains Brian Daley's complete radio play, which differs slightly from the version of the Radio Drama which aired on National Public Radio in 1983 and the original 1990s HighBridge Audio cassette and compact disc editions. The version in Daley's script