Wholesale and Distribution Movie Reviews

Unlike most love stories, this one was fun to watch. I for one don't usually like love stores, but Love and Basketball and Fire and Ice are two of the better ones out there. The acting was good and you will see some new actors as well as some familiar faces. I will purchase this movie for my home collection.

BET finally got it right. This movie was very good and the story line was closer to the book than any BET movie to date. I have watched all of these BET "books into movies" and had been totally disappointed, this was by far the best out of all of them, mainly because they kept to the storyline. If you enjoyed the movie you will love the book.
I also recommend Commitments on DVD and the book.

this was very good african american movie. hats off to everyone who participated in making this movie a success. a definate keeper.

I borrowed my friends VHS copy of this and it ruled. The only problem is that the DVD version has a slightly different edit in some places, and the soundtrack has for the majority, been changed. However, the extras are pretty cool. Bottom line, is that both versions are great, but if you like rock/metal with your skating, get the VHS.

It's been mentioned again and again here that the range of styles is impressive and that many of the skate parts here just blow you away, but I'm surprised to see little mention of the editing on this video. It's amazing visually from beginning to end and the flow between parts just keeps it moving--something a longer skate video really needs not to make it seem excessive by the end of an hour. There are some editing and musical changes from the vhs version but I don't think it necessarily detracts from the overall effect of the video (sumner's part was the only real disappointment in that i think the original song by and you will know us by the trail of dead really added to it and kept with sumner's aggressive style but oh well). The making of documentary is great and the other extras had no trouble keeping me glued to the screen. Definitely worth buying!

i love this video ive watched it like 100 times and just gets u pump and ready to skate get it and the skate parts in it are incredable and the extra content is cool to get this product if u love awsome street skatin and mad tricks buy bam margera tony hawk brainsuner and kenny anderson

The conducting is very good, The orchestra is excelent and Gheorghiu really shines! Alagna is not the best tenor around, but he is ok. The same aplies to Barcelona. On the other hand, Julian Konstantinov is really very bad for the Requiem... Any one who doesn't own the Karajan version, casting Pavarotti and the extraordinary Ghiaurov,Price and Cossotto, should definitelly buy that one first. But this one is the best second choice around.

I had the pleasure of attending Mr. Abbado's concerts number of times and I can tell you that his concerts are glorious. Unfortunately, seldom the spirit of his concerts have been successfully captured in his recordings; this DVD nevertheless, is one of those rare occasions. For those of you who inquired about his condition: Mr. Abbado was suffering from stomach cancer but as far as I know he has fully recovered. I met him in person after the opening concert in Carnegie Hall in October of 2001, and I must tell you, his frail face brought tears to my eyes.

The conducting is the best and the soloists and choir are wonderful. I have enjoyed the concert over and over and discover something new every time I listen. If you like Verdi ,you will love this DVD,
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With AND1 hysteria sweeping the nation, it's tough to play a game at the rec and not have a "Hot Sauce" wannabe want to pull a move on someone. Most of these guys find out it's not so easy to pull of the move with someone actually playing hard D on you.
Enter EBC 2, a collection of footage from the recent Entertainer's Basketball Classic, the tournament of tournaments for most ballers. The level of skill is remarkably higher than that displayed in the AND1 tapes, where they played locals with little or no motivation to stop their opponents. So when The Bone Collector or A Whole Lotta Game pulls a so-called "AND1" move--slicing through the lane with a windmill lefty layup or shaking a defenders outstretched hand before shooting--it's all the more spectacular. Not only is the skill level through the roof, with NBA players lke Stephon Marbury, Jermaine O'Neal, Shawn Marion, Baron Davis, Derek Anderson, Jason Richardson, Cedric Henderson, Kenny Satterfield and Kobe Bryant making appearances, winning the championship is actually a goal.
Notice the emphasis on tough threes, get-em-out blocks, and disgusting hangtime oops; these are skilled players pulling off hotdog moves either because they have to or because they've got the balls to. You aren't humiliating chumps, you're trying to dunk or dribble through Ron Artest, Jamaal Tinsley and a host of streetball legends.
The conversational cuts in between the highlights could be done away with; it seems like the tournament directors and regulars are forcing face time. The music is a definite plus, intercut perfectly with the crowd's oohs and aahs. The DVD also plays the championship game in near-entirety, a definite plus if you don't think you can make it to the Rucker to watch the EBC live in your lifetime. There's also a easy to navigate section of the best dunks and moves of the tournament.
Which brings up the sad fact that championships can be bought, and that like the AND1 series, going mainstream will only water down streetball. Fat Joe's Terror Squad disgustingly buys the championship by putting together a roster composed largely of NBA players and ghetto superstars from other teams to convincingly take "the Chip."
It's a must have for the basketball fan though. It's your last chance to see streetball moves busted out in a rough-and-tough environment, where nothing comes for free. It's AND1 in a real tournament...go out and get it before the other guy does.

Found the website for kobe bryant,type: 'kobe bryant accuser',next look-up: 'wbli.com:steve & maria kobe bryant's accuser',this website has the pictures of the mistaken accuser,she saids she'll sue for being wrongly identified.

Great athletes of basketball,with Kobe Bryant,great book and worth reading!

Even more excitement than the first 2. 2 flaws, they don't go to woodward and no Mat Hoffman, but other than that very cool.

Just as good if not better than the first two. They go wakeskating, paintballing again, New Orleans(no nudity,DARN), Whitewater rafting,to a spa and more.

What a great collection of shows and extras! This series aired on ESPN in the latter half of 2002 and if you missed it, now is your chance to get it. Some of the highlights that stand out in my mind include Kerry Getz, Eric Koston, and Willy Santos getting SUPER tech all over the place; Mike V. destroying himself to pull off the gnarly stuff; Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, and Shaun White just killin' it on vert. Basically, everyone on this tour rocks. Too many riders, tricks, locations, and situations to exhaustively list right here, so buy the DVD and check it all out for yourself!

Some of the more interesting extras that were never aired include Tony getting kidnapped by the B-team; Getz and Chalmers tearing up the real streets of St. Paul, MN; Kris Markovich and Sal Masekela getting ready to throw some blows after someone put something in someone's drink; and Bam's gruesome trip to the dentist (hey can I have that tooth?).

The current DVD format has more options compared to the 2000 and 2001 discs. You can now play all shows consecutively instead of just one at a time. You can also pick individual shows and navigate to specific tour stops therein. It is interesting that some of the original music in certain segments has been changed. I've always felt that skateboarding and video making are works of art and this kinda sets a different tone/mood when watching parts that I am thoroughly familiar with. Also, the "Best Of" segments, where the boyz are reminiscing about the tour, are not included. Anyhow, if you have the series taped as aired (and are cultish on anything and everything Hawk), you might want to hold on to those cassettes even after getting this DVD.

Sadly, this is probably the last of the "Gigantic Skatepark Tour" series, however, I do believe that the 2003 "Secret Skatepark Tour" will be coming to DVD soon. Check out Tony's website for details.

This is indeed one of my favourites of the Gish sisters and the infamous and controversial D.W Griffith (known for his work in The Birth of a Nation, Broken Blossoms, Intolerance, Way Down East). I myself found the story heart-wrenching AND historically accurate on the French Revolution, a dark period in France. Lillian plays Henriette with such passion and her character searching for her beloved adopted sister Louise (played equally powerfully by Dorothy Gish) and her findings of love and being almost guillotined. It is truly seat clenchingly wonderful. I couldn't stop watching it and it remains my second favourite of D.W.'s films (Way Down East being the first). I found also the supporting actors equally brilliant. Joseph Schilkadrat was wonderful as Henriette's love and the tender scenes with them are beautiful. No greater film director ever recreated history as well as D.W. Griffith. I highly recommend this film to anyone! I am going to watch it again in fact it is so FANTASTIC! A true Masterpiece indeed and ever deserving of it!

"Orphans of the Storm" is the last great box-office success for direct D.W. Griffith and arguably the most melodramatic of his best films. Set on the even of the French Revolution the titular characters are the fabled sisters Lillian and Dorothy Gish who have to endure all sorts of traumas as the bloody Reign of Terror consumes Paris. Basically we have too parallel stories between which "Orphans of the Storm" moves back and forth. On the one hand we have the plight of Henrietta (Lillian), the poor little peasant girl, and Louise (Dorothy), her blind "sister," who was abandoned by her upper class mother. On the other we have the growing discontent of the rabble with the aristocracy ("Poverty murmurs ominously outside the gates," as one title card puts it). The two plot lines are put on a collision course when Henrietta falls in love with Chevalier de Vaudrey (Joseph Schildkraut), an aristocrat with a noble heart (he distributes bread to the starving masses). Of course, this will matter little once the guillotine gets going. But before that the key event takes place when the two sisters arrive in Paris so that Louise can undergo an operation that would restore her sight. Henrietta is kidnapped because of her beauty by the lecherous Marquis de Praille (Morgan Wallace), and her blind sister is taken in by gypsies, at which point the melodrama is on in deadly earnest.

The Gish sisters are the stars of this film; their names do not appear in the opening credits; they are reserved for when the pair make their first appearance. But this is really Lillian Gish's movie, even more so that Griffith's. He provides the grand sets and human spectacle, especially once the revolution begins, not to mention the periodic denouncements of bolshevism, but the emotional moments all belong to Lillian, especially the scene when she hears her sister's voice for the first time since their separation. As long as she is on screen you pay attention, but when the story goes back to the other plot threads slowly coming together your mind can start to wander, and it is her performance that makes the melodrama palatable. After all, this is a film where her starving father goes to the church to abandon her and ends up bringing two babies home. The close calls that almost reunite the two sisters are such that you could easily see this 1921 silent film being recut as a serial.

The special features for this Kino on Video DVD that is part of the Griffith Masterworks series includes a filmed introduction by Orson Welles; a portfolio of rare Griffith photographs of the directors and his starlets; "Rescued From the Eagle's Nest," a 1908 film that stars Griffith as an actor; "The Story of David Wark Griffith," a biography published in "Photoplay" magazine in 1916; footage taken at Griffith's funeral; and a radio eulogy of Griffith by fellow director Erich von Stroheim. Based on Adolphe d'Ennery's play "The Two Orphans," this film runs 150 minutes and features the 1922 score by Louis F. Gottschalk & William Frederick Peters given a modern arrangement and performed by Brian Benison. "Orphans of the Storm" would not qualify as a great silent film, but Griffith's hand and Lillian Gish's performance is enough to ensure it is considered a classic. I know that Mary Pickford was America's Sweetheart, but I find that hard to believe every time the camera lingers of Lillian Gish.

People whom have read my previous reviews should know by now that I consider D.W. Griffith to be one of the greatest directors of all time. This movie in question, i.e., Orphans of the Storm VHS ~ Lillian Gish , ranks right up there with Intolerence and is much better then Birth of Nation. The pair of sisters that play the roles; play these roles with heartfelt conviction, resolve, fortitude and vigor. Their tenderness towards eachother is also genuine and devotion is quite touching. Highly Recommended.

I've become somewhat of a DVD junkie over the last year, and the main thing that bothers me is the slew of DVD's that do not take advantage of the cool features that DVD's can provide. The picture and sound quality are great, but I want to see more interactivity!! Well, this DVD delivers on that. It's got sick Skate, Surf, BMX & Moto footage, but the really cool part is the menus. You can of course watch the thing start to finish, but you can also pick the music, then pick what sport you want to watch over the music. And all the songs have different footage to choose from, so it endures multiple views. Let's see more of this please!!!

Me and my friends bagged on it at first but after we found out how the different angles worked we were fighting over the remote control.
alot of fun.....
When does the next one come out?

Holy Shzit!!! This was insane! Pick your own angle.......CRAZY!

Definetly a 10!

I first came across this film when it was released in one of those "laser discs" developed by Pioneer a couple of decades ago, nowadays gone the way of the Betamax, superseded by newer, although not always better, technologies. This EMI release contains most of that laser disc's contents, for some reason leaving out the initial segment (some dozen minutes I estimate), one that included introductory shots that showed the cars going round the Place de l'Opéra under a heavy rain to disembark their illustrious passengers, then proceeding inside to pan across the vast hall before the recital starts, spotting for us a few of the "toût Paris" that had attended the gala evening when Maria Callas would first sing before them, people like Juliette Greco, Brigitte Bardot, Charlie Chaplin and others, then went on to show the entrance of then French President René Coty, allowing us to listen to the National Anthem and then to the overture of Verdi's La Forza del Destino. This dvd release catches up when the latter has ended and Callas makes her grand entrance. Substituted for the segment I've described EMI have decided to give us some sort of a colour "guided visit" of the theatre, which resumes variously within the programme as we switch from one composer to another. A real loss, as the original film placed us within a marvellous context, allowing us to feel the atmosphere of the evening, as close as one can more than four decades away, and allowing ous to savour the diva's entrance practically as much as the Paris audience on 19/12/58 did. And whatever information one gets on the Palais Garnier in the new segment one can also get (and more) from the green Michelin guide.

Musically, the film is a mixed bag. There are magical moments in the recital, true, and the second half comprising the better of her filmed second act of Tosca (staged and in costume) with Gobbi giving his famous portrayal in top form makes it worth purchasing the disc alone, in spite of a defficient Cavaradossi, but by the time Callas came to Paris her voice no longer was the instrument that had given a solid floor to her legendary fame, justly earned on the Milan, London or Rome stages. Faulty (or ill-placed) breath takings are not uncommon, there's some shouting in the Tosca and she wobbles sometimes (the Verdi segment is especially affected). But anyway, documents like these are rare indeed and are a must. The Abbey Road engineers have improved the sound quality (mono, of course) over previous releases, as well as the image, and there is a very interesting and informative article by Gramophone magazine's well-known contributor, contributor John Steane.

This DVD was previously issued in some markets as "The Paris recital". The evening was hosted by Marie Claire magazine and attended by the creme of 50s Paris - including Bardot, Chaplin, Onassis, and the Windsors. The recital, needless to say, is excellent, a great document to a legendary singer. In the Tosca excerpt the performance of Tito Gobbi as Scarpia is superbly malevolent. There's even a moment of priceless humour as the unfortunate last minute stand-in for the scheduled tenor gaffes by briefly relapsing into the local French version after his big aria. Callas remains totally unfazed.

TECHNICAL: Running time 91 minutes, mainly black and white except for a short introduction to the Palais Garnier where the recital was filmed and end titles, which are in colour. The DVD subtitles include English, French and very usefully 'libretto' - which allows one to follow the text of Norma, Il Trovatore, and Tosca in Italian, but during the intervals subtitles Paul Tchernia's French commentary in French. But be warned that not all of the other EMI Callas DVDs have this option.

As this is a recital, we don't have the other parts/settings etc except for Tosca. The recorded sound is not as good as one would expect, nor is the photography: they are slightly below the best standard of the time.

Yet we have a lot of music and drama. All the credits go to Callas. People say the violin is the devil's instrument. I say this is only one side of the coin and Callas, Caruso etc will show you the other side. The violin may be a difficult enough instument to learn but with a singer, we have to be borned with the voice, and then there is so much to learn. After all that, the singing career is piteously short for once her interpretation is really interesting, she will soon pass her prime...

But it's rewarding, as a lot of pianists would refer to Callas for the art of phrasing and one is none but Alfred Brendel. Well, her Norma and also her Verdi are so impressive that one would say that is the ultimate limit of music or indeed of any art form. Needless to say, her acting is totally convincing too.

This is a great live DVD.It Has Songs From GISH,
Siamese Dream,Pisces Iscariot and,Earphoria.It Also Has Some funny/dumb stuff but those ones are not Performances.It has some lost '94 tapes.BUT on the back of the case it does not say it has the song Percellina(im not sure how its spelled)And It Does!.The DVD is almost 3 hours long!Its Great!There is NOTHING Complain About!Take it or leave it its worth 30 big ones.

The Smashing Pumpkins are legends. Although everyone has moved on, and Corgan and Chamberlain moved to Zwan (very good new CD), this DVD collection is a must buy, fan or not. Fans will enjoy the little interludes with the band members, but the live performances are unbelievably good. Go ahead to the "Lost 94 tapes" section to reveal yet another eight or so live videos of more Siamese Dreams songs that anyone wil enjoy.

Includes some comedic interludes with a funny intro to "Geek USA" in Germany. "Stoppen ze throwen ze cuppen," Billy said to a crowd of Germans throwing beer onstage.

[The Gimme thing is is from the middle of I Am One...really awesome raps Billy has!] Viephoria rocks! While the Pumpkins aren't quite a visual band, as KISS, the Pumpkins rock live, and Viewphoria captures them in their pre-pretentious phase, when they were hungry and trying to earn their place in the music world. I've never seen the old Viewphoria, but this is awesome. The between-music skits are funny, and help you get a little closer to the band individuals and see their personalities.

Hot damn, the boys are rollin' on this DVD!! This DVD blows the band's other two releases out of the water. I love the shots were you see even the police officers gettin' funky. How can you help yourself?! The groove is just too contagious. Rock n' Roll!

Much better than the Folsom Field DVD imho. It captures the feel of the concert wonderfully and Dave is very animated during this concert. Lots of long outros to songs and just a great feel all around on this DVD. I would say this is better than Listener Supported, but I love the intimate feel of that DVD. If you're even a remote fan of DMB, get this DVD!

I went to the concert in Antioch, TN for the 2nd straight year. If you haven't gone to a Dave concert, you haven't lived. Anyways, this DVD is quality material. For those of you who didn't like how the camera would focus on the crowd for a while, you'll probably like this one better. There is a little documentary-type feature where it shows them setting up the stage and whatnot...I rate this DVD an A+!