Text Encoding Initiative Movie Reviews

I love this stuff! It's so bizarre! I've never laughed so hard as when everyone is told to don their anti-radioactive suits in ATOMIC WAR BRIDE and they're just big garbage bags! And then one guy tries to get inside one with somebody else because he doesn't have one. Pure hilarity!

Mike Vraney has turned out this wonderful double bill of Atomic terror. The first film is Atomic war Bride from 1960 Yugoslavia, and it is a well made little film about atomic war and the devastating effects it has on people. A shocking ending as well.
The second filmis a gem called This Is Not A Test. I had seen this on late night television and never forgot it. A gritty, well acted film about several people waiting for the end of the world at a roadblock set up by a local policeman. Great film, great ending!!
The extras are good here as well. I highly recommend this dvd is you like 50's and 60's sci-fi.

Again S.W.V. pulls off another hat trick. Taking two atomic age films from opposite sides of the world (one, THIS IS NOT A TEST is all American, while ATOMIC WAR BRIDE, is all Yugoslavian - yes, they have a film industry), gives you a uncanny perspective on just how nuclear war was looked at. In some ways they are both the same, but in others, there are major differences (THIS IS NOT A TEST dissolves into a kind of material anarchy, while ATOMIC WAR BRIDE asks for and gets civil duty, but they both end with a bang). As for extra's, S.W.V. has a reputation for pulling together a string of themed shorts that are both funny and downright scary - the best of these shorts for this set is YOU CAN BEAT THE A-BOMB. I must warn you now that this short is perhaps one of the most jaw dropping and creepy short films you will ever see - not only does it approach the subject of nuclear holocoust with a FATHER KNOWS BEST mind set, but even for the time it was produced (1950) it is amazingly scant on details, and long on urban fantasy. Very, very creepy (and please, when you see this, feel free to email me, I would love to know what you think of it). As for the movies, both hold up very well. THIS IS NOT A TEST was done on a near zero budget, but manages to pull off the impossible by being entertaining and creepy all at once. ATOMIC WAR BRIDE is pure propoganda (and good luck trying to decide which side this film is really on), and yet oddly compelling. I can't recommend this S.W.V. DVD enough, it's a classic.

This fourth volume in the extremely addicting GTO series is by far the best, having watched the subsequent volumes.

The plot is simple enough: Eikichi Onizuka, a former bike gang member, college karate champ, 22 years old and a bachelor, has taken it upon himself to be the world's greatest teacher. with little or no qualifications, he somehow gets accepted into a prestigious school, is assigned the worst class of delinquents ever, and proceeds to work on taming the adolescent beasts.

Simple plot, complex protagonist. Onizuka is the definition of "man-child," the battle with the man and the child within him always in conflict. This is key as the series plays up the ongoing battle between the students and adults, be it teachers, administrators, parents or politicians. Onizuka is into videogames, internet porn, costumes, launching bottle rockets and ogling schoolgirls. At the same time he has a better sensitivity toward the real causes of the students problems, be it parental conflict, bad past experiences with teachers, money or bullying. Then again, he likes to deal with his problems in the most unorthodox methods, i.e. beating up students.

Just like standard fighting animes, Onizuka has to deal with various opponent-students during the course of the series. By now you'll have been introduced to bully Aizawa Miyabi, super smart Kikuchi, ditzy Tomoko, and fierce Kunio Murai.

This time, Onizuka must face super-hot super-genius Urumi Kanzaki, a blonde-haired, brown-and-blue eyed angel, who gets special treatment from the school, knowing that with such intelligence, her future success means tons for the school's reputation. Her thing is to "ask a question" from the teachers--traslating into humiliating them by showing them she knows more, far more about their subject than they do.

The sub-story line includes a girl from another school with a foot-fetish, who also has sway in getting Onizuka possibly fired.

This volume is great for so many reasons: the introduction of Kanzaki, the extremely fast pace and top-notch level of humor, as well as the ending...guaranteed cool.

The art is on a par with Dragonball Z, and watching this series in Japanese is *necessary*! Not only are their numerous word jokes (that a student is suffering a trauma, pronounced "tora-uma" evokes an image of a giant tiger-horse animal in Onizuka's mind), or that the English teacher struggles with and forces English, the story has pretty significant differences from the English to the Japanese version. The Japanese vocal cast is far superior, and the vocal intonations better match the facial expressions; the storyline and what they say are far more risque and naughtier than the English dub as well.

This volume is what GTO is all about, why the series is as good and addicting as it is. Great story, side-splitting humor, good action, well-felt tension and sadness as well. If I could own only one (which isn't possible) this would be it.

And who would want to stop Onizuka except Uchiyamada (vice principal). Uchiyamada hates Onizuka with a passion. Even in this volume the rage continues especially about his new beloved Toyota Cressida. Onizuka is amazing. He saves the foot fetish girl from kidnappers who want ransom. Onizuka gets seriously injured in this one folks so try not to have a heart attack. I truly enjoyed watching this volume just as much as the other ones.
I love GTO!!! This is a spectacular series that I plan on owning. I plan to buy every volume I can get my hands on. Action, plenty of comedy, and drama with lessons all packed into one powerful punch from Onizuka!!! Class dismissed.

GTO is the best anime series I've seen in a long, long, long time, and the quality hasn't diminished in this fourth volume. Onizuka continues his hilarious quest to redeem the rat-scum students of his junior high class. What results is the usual hilarious battle of wits (???), and although the resolutions might seem a little sappy, that's okay. A little sappiness can be good sometimes, especially in a show without giant exploding robots or a "jiggle-counter". My one complaint is that the show's opening and ending themes (Driver's High and Last Piece) have been replaced with new ones as of this volume. The new themes are okay, but for me nothing beats the end of each episode when the screen goes white and "Last Piece" begins. Ah, well, if life was perfect it'd probably be illegal.

This DVD contains three separate 40+ minute programs about test pilots, aircraft, and technology (SR-71 Blackbird, and X-15 segments are particularly good). It uses computer animation, test flight footage, and interviews to create a fascinating show. The DVD is 143 minutes long, and contains several bonus features. The length and quality of this DVD helps to justify its slightly high price. There were no reviews available when I bought this DVD, but I'm glad I bought it. If this type of documentary interests you, then this is a very good buy.

I found this anime very confusing. Like most animes the episodes can seem confusing but they reveal themselves in the end. What makes this anime even more confusing is that it has a cliff hanger ending and it never really reveals itself in the end.

Had seen it on Cartoon Network, and wanted to see what it was like unedited. Only thing I don't like about it, is the fact that they appear to not have finished the story.

In the future, mankind lost 4 planets due to a terrible mistake. They reteated to space and built colonies,huge domes with glass protecting it. There is only one planet left, Zion. The alien form known as VICTIM is out to destoy it. So.....

Mankind built huge mechas called Ingrids or Goddesses. The candidates must first train to become one of the 5 Goddess pilots. They go to the Goddess Opperating Accademy or GOA. And when they become pilots they go to GIS. And.....
To be a candidate you have to have the abiltity of EX. Having a reaction to such a power turns your hair teal. It may be telepathy or the power to move fast without being seen. OK.....

The story follows 5 candidates. The main character is Zero Enna. He is a hyper boy and can't stop talking about his dream to pilot the White Ingrid that saved him when he was younger. He has a rival named Hiead and friends Yamagi, Roose, Clay, and another senior named Erts whose brother is a pilot.
Zero and his classmates train and live on GOA. And the story also go into the lives of the pilots. Now...

I love the anime and I'm getting the DVDs. It came on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network but was cancelled for some strange reason.
Get it because it's in space and space is COOL!!!!

If you want to get your feet wet in 24/96 audio, overall, this isn't a bad way to go. The tests included are pretty much the usual lot (1k 0dB, L/R ID, FR, Sweeps, etc.). The nice thing is the tests are given in two sets. The first set is all at 48kHz, the second set is at 96kHz. There is a little variety in bit depth.

A word about the warnings on the disc. In a couple of places, you are warned about turning your speakers off before going on to the test tones. I couldn't understand why, so I gave Chesky a call. I don't remember the name of the person I spoke to (she was, I think, their main engineer). You don't have to exercise any more caution than you would using any other test disc. Test tones are very clean recordings (usually), and because of the dynamics involved, you want volume settings very low. For those of you with meters on your amps, output readings should be around 1/10 of a Watt. For those of you without meters, turn the volume down to zero, then bring it up while the test is playing.

For the novice, something recorded at 0dB FS is brutally loud when compared to everything else. Use extreme caution when using any test tone CD.

At the risk of calling down the wrath of Cheskians (Cheskites? I don't know the proper term for Chesky worshipers), I think there is a significant shortcoming on this disc: too much music.

There is about an hour of music on the disc that serves (partially) as a test bed. My personal preference would have been for less music and more tests tones, including more spot frequencies and disc error correction tests.

The sonic impact of the music and the new technology behind it could have just as effectively been relayed using three of the nine music tracks included. I understand part of this disc's intended function is to serve as advertising for acts on the label. That might not be so bad, except the disc runs full price.

Delivering short where it counts (for me, test tone content), and going long where it hurts (price) is why I'm giving three out of five stars.

I already own several test CDs, so when I bought this DVD I was looking for a wide introduction to DVD's 96/24 format to compare with CD's 44/16 format. For me, this is a perfect mix. It starts with almost a CD's worth of music, most of it with a startling dynamic range and clarity, and a pitch black background, as well as a large enough selection of test tones and the likes for me to get a great view of what this format can do. I ended up loving more than half the musical selections enough to buy the DVDs of them. A few I merely liked and two just wasn't my cup of tea.

I guess, I wanted to know what music was available using DVD's higher resolution and if it were worth the higher price. If I hadn't bought this DVD and listened to it for a year, I would have had no other way to find out about the various music available using DVD's higher resolution without buying them all.

In short, I bought this DVD to answer the questions, "Does a variety of music recorded on DVD's 96/24 format sound better than what I'm generally used to from CD," (my answer: YES, much better.) "What, of the music available in this format, are recordings I'd like to own?" (My answer: more than half.)

It seems to me that this format makes it easier to produce a spectacular musical recording--almost all the musical selections on this demo DVD were as good as the best CD recordings I'd heard from Eargle. The best John Eargle recordings match this in quality of recording, but few others. The musical selection ranges from pop, jazz, and classical to Celtic, African, and Caribbean.

So if you're looking for a stereo demo DVD to give you an across the board look at what DVD's higher audio resolution sounds like, using selections from available DVDs, then buy this one. If you're looking for a complete collection of test tones on DVD, maybe there's a better one out there, I don't know.

This series is so funny..the box set used to be liek 100..they slashed the price to under $89! Try this disc to see how great the series is..then pick up the box set and use the coupon they give you to get $10 back! A great series for beavis/butthead fans and south park fans

This is a great series for those who like action and magic/sword fighting..in the traditon of LOTR. They lowered the price on the box set too to under $69! Pick this one up and then use the coupon to get $10 off the box set..great idea

This US version is missing some of the best performances on the UK version like PIL, Alex Harvey Band, Dr. Feelgood, Robert Wyatt, Gary Numan, Tim Buckley, New York Dolls and more. The UK version is region 0 so if you have a NTSC/PAL player don't waste your time with the US light version. Buy the superior UK full version from amazon.co.uk instead. I have it and it blows this one away.

I have the complete Keith Interview on a poor-quality VHS tape. I was hopin to upgrade.
Too bad they decided to edit his interview. (Something they'd never tell you about ahead of time)

The Lennon interview from 4-18-75 seems to be complete. And it's excellent.

Richards was in the middle of his 8 yr Heroin "Experiment" at the time.

Man would it be amazing if they released the FULL Bob Marley performance rather than one song!?? And yes, many of these were FULL in-studio concerts. Let's hope they release these sometime soon in their entirety!!

I particularly would like to see the RETURN TO FOREVER concert recorded in 1976 by the Whistle Test. I have a bootleg DVD of it and the quality is crap. I'm sure they have the master tapes and that's like a holy grail performance for any jazz fan.

The DVD feels like a typical 80s educational video. The narration is boring and lacks detail. A great amount, say 80 percent is shot from the driver's view, with the "supposed" tester whispering his explanation of what to do - poor acting by the way. It would have been better had they shown diagrams to help better understand the concept. I myself had difficulty with parking especially parallel; the DVD completely ignores this part of the test. The DVD was shot for the Canadian market, thus speed limits listed on the DVD is in kilo meters instead of miles. Some of the rules stated do not apply to American road rules. Overall the DVD had an amateurish feel.

I purchased this Instructional Driving DVD for my Son and couldn't believe the difference it made in his confidence. He had failed the on-road driving test twice due to nerves and was petrified about going back. He watched the video portion many times until he could do the simulated test in his sleep. I personally found the interactive written test helpful for refreshing myself on the rules of the road. Thanks for a job well done and my son thanks you for his driver's license.