Search for the Great Sharks

Okay documentary, nothing spectacular though!
I consider myself a documentary, "Discovery Channel" freak, and of the many topics and themes which interest me the most, sharks in general rank among the top 10.

So my review of this DVD may be viewed as biased from the start, hence a high 4 or 5-star rating may be expected. Unfortunately, I've seen the disc and am somewhat disappointed. For one, how can you call a disc "Search For The Great Sharks" when you essentially featured just two species (the whale shark and the ever crowd-pleasing great white)? Nothing about hammerheads? Makos? Tiger sharks?

Nevertheless, I give it 3 stars if only for the overall audio and video quality (expect nothing less from IMAX - I own a couple others myself). Also interesting trivia which would probably please an audience of all ages. The film, unfortunately, is only 46 mins long (how come all IMAXes are this short? grrr!), with nine chapters as follows: 1. Domain of the Shark; 2. Behavior; 3. Steel Cage; 4...

Nothing special. Imax deserves something better.
This documentary needs badly a better direction and focus. There's nothing here we have not seen in the Discovery Channel. Furthermore the pace is slow, the story bland and repetitive (how many times must we show wonder for a senior cientist?)and the resources such as Imax film are wasted. If you want to watch something spectacular, try Ray Macgillivray's The Living Seas, Imax-Alaska or Africa-The Serengeti. Buy this only if you want to complete your Imax Dvd Library.

Too much above water filming
Although the shark footage is great. I was hoping that there would be more actual footage of sharks. Much of the movie seamed to focus upon the researchers looking for the sharks, instead of the sharks themselves.

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Beneath the Blue

Good, but not great
Beneath the Blue was a good, clean, family movie. The underwater filming was great and as someone who knows of a teen who died of a blackout I appreciated the warning about free diving.

I rented this movie because I volunteer a lot with ocean conservation efforts. Apparently this is a sequel to "Eye of the Dolphin" which I will watch soon to better understand some of the character backgrounds. There were definitely a few moments when I felt like the third person left out of insider information. But, overall, I enjoyed meeting the characters and thought all the acting was well done. Some of the lines made me roll my eyes, but I assume the target audience is young teens. I did wish some of the scenes between Alyssa and Craig would have been longer to flesh out their attraction to each other (I wanted to know what was going on in their heads more). Also, I had no idea how old Alyssa and Craig were supposed to be... originally I thought teenagers, but Craig is in military and...

Good Clean Fun
My younger daughters watched this and loved it. They are in their younger teens. No inappropriate themes or language. The movie seems to be (among other things) about choices and the fall out of those choices.

It was just okay
It isn't anything earthshattering, but it was mildly entertaining. It almost seemed like it was an after school movie or something like that.

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Miss Nobody

Climbing The Corporate Ladder On Rungs Of Blood--Lightweight Black Comedy With A Winning Lead Performance
Nobody enjoys a light and frothy comedy about murderous machinations more than I do. And "Miss Nobody" is a particularly bubbly addition to the genre. It is about the lightest and breeziest black comedy that you're likely to encounter. And yet, while I enjoyed the film to a large degree, I just wish it contained a few more surprises. Set in the corporate world, the plucky heroine (Leslie Bibb) advances through the ranks through the most unorthodox and unpleasant of means. While her exploits might be fun and amusing--you can't help but feel that you've seen this all before. Not nearly edgy or original enough, though, I'll still recommend the film for fans of the genre for one big reason. Leslie Bibb gives a winning comedic performance that oftentimes seems fresher than the material she's given. Bibb has been kicking around for quite a few years, it's time she got a chance to shine (she takes an executive producer credit here as well).

Bibb starts out as a secretary...

Climbing The Corporate Ladder On Rungs Of Blood: Lightweight Black Comedy With A Winning Lead Performance
Nobody enjoys a light and frothy comedy about murderous machinations more than I do. And "Miss Nobody" is a particularly bubbly addition to the genre. It is about the lightest and breeziest black comedy that you're likely to encounter. And yet, while I enjoyed the film to a large degree, I just wish it contained a few more surprises. Set in the corporate world, the plucky heroine (Leslie Bibb) advances through the ranks through the most unorthodox and unpleasant of means. While her exploits might be fun and amusing, you can't help but feel that you've seen this all before. Not nearly edgy or original enough, though, I'll still recommend the film for fans of the genre for one big reason. Leslie Bibb gives a winning comedic performance that oftentimes seems fresher than the material she's given. Bibb has been kicking around for quite a few years, it's time she got a chance to shine (she takes an executive producer credit here as well).

Bibb starts out as a secretary of a...

Miss Nobody
I happened to catch this one on TV, and it was definitely interesting. Not a typical boring cliche movie. It has a pretty original story line, and Leslie Bibb does a great job playing this character. She comes off as playing a sexy character but still somewhat awkward at the same time, and she makes it work. The only thing I really "disliked" about the movie was the apparently rampant amount of perverts and sexual harrassment at her work, and how everyone was in on some big secret plot. Aside from that, it was good and had a good ending.

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Shelter Me

An Uplifting PBS Documentary Special: Great Personal Stories Involving Shelter Pets
The PBS documentary special "Shelter Me" is rather straightforward in its goal. Director Steven Latham wants your next pet to be adopted from a shelter. And why not? Every year, several million animals are put down in American shelters. There simply isn't enough room or sufficient resources to house these animals indefinitely. And yet, the demands for pets has never really wavered. From a personal standpoint, I've never understood this disconnect. It would never occur to me to NOT reach out to a shelter. These creatures need a home. The twist in the two part "Shelter Me" is that not only do those profiled rescue the animals, but in many ways these abandoned pets go on to rescue their new owners. It's a lovingly created film that will inspire and touch you. While there is much unpleasantness in the topic of animal shelters, this 57 minute feature focuses on some specific and positive personal stories. And if you love animals, this is certainly a must-see endeavor...

A Must To Watch
This movie is a must watch one. Especially with all the family present. It really touches your heart and makes you definitely want to make a "life-long" commitment. Yep folks, if you adopt a pet, whatever it is, please, please remember that for the life of that animal it's YOUR responsibility to love, feed, and take care of it. In turn it gives you love, protection, and commitment. I especially believe in animals touching those people in desperate need of both physical and mental support. You will definitely enjoy this movie. A definitely buy for my DVD collection.

Very touching tribute to newer avenues for shelter dogs
I wanted to see this show on PBS but I couldn't figure out the viewing schedule on the station in my area. I am highly into anything that is dog related so I had heard of all these different programs mentioned in this special before. It was still very interesting and moving to view these individual programs that were featured. What struck me as always was how deep an impact each of these dogs had on the trainers and then again on the people they were placed with. I definitely needed my Kleenex during the last part of the program-PTSD soldiers and their dogs.

I did buy the movie for download. I think just a rental would have sufficed unless I wanted to share the film with a friend.

So happy there a shelter dogs getting a chance to change someone's world.

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Greatest Places

A Short Tour Of Planet Earth
An Imax film with no real plot or story, its a short tour of some of "The Greatest Places" on Planet Earth. (I would have given the film an extra star if there had been some sort of "connection" for the audience). There are some truely stunning wildlife and location images in the films 40 minutes and because of that it really needs to be seen either at an Imax cinema or on a large sceen TV, but even on my TV at home it looked incredible. The film visits the Amazon, Namib, Greenland, Okavango, Greenland, Tibet, Iguazu and Madagascar spending differnt amounts of time at each. Some of the places visited deserved a bit more time spent on them while others could have been a bit shorter. An interesting feature of this DVD that I'd like to see more of is the seperate Music and Ambiance track. You can turn off the narration, (which is a bit corny at times), and just listen to the music and natural sounds. The only problem with this feature is that the music...

A way for people to travel without spending alot of money
I don't get to travel, so this is my way of experiencing other lands and cultures. I have a friend who has a large screen projector home theater system. This DVD was excellent for this type of viewing and listening experience. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the DVD movie. It was like taking a space ship to another world and having a narrator explain it to you. Colors were clear and vivid, background music was soothing, I found it to be relaxing, and a way to escape the stresses of life.

It's not great but good.
It's not one of the best IMAX movies out there. But is very interesting and very well presented. The audio and video are of great quality. The only reason I couldn't rate it great was because 40 min. is too short a time to cover 6 great places in the world. I wish they made it at least 60 min.

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Pitch Perfect

Aca-mazing!
If you read a synopsis of Pitch Perfect, it just sounds like your typical rom-com, coming-of-age, singing movie; but I swear to you it's not. After being forced to see it by my stepbrother and his girlfriend, I was very, very pleasantly surprised. Pitch Perfect is probably one of my favorite movies ever now. As soon as the credits started rolling I knew I was in love and I needed to see it again. So I did, a week later. The music was aca-mazing! The soundtrack is absolutely off the charts! I am obsessed! My favorite song from it is the Bellas finals. The plot was a bit cliché, but good. The acting wasn't fantastic, but the goal here clearly wasn't to try and get nominated for an Oscar. They just wanted us to like the movie, and I more than liked it, so they succeeded.

Anna Kendrick played Beca, an amateur DJ who wants nothing more than to leave college and move to Los Angeles, causing her to be miserable all the time and shutting out everyone who cares about her. Her...

Action movie manly man who loved this film
I'm not a Ron Swanson, but I am a beer drinking, boot wearing, steak eating Die Hard loving guy. In other words, I was pretty much not the target audience for this film. But enough of my lady friends convinced me to give it a shot. I got these girls into Sons of Anarchy and Spartacus: Blood and Sand respectively so I figured I owed it to them to take their word.

I loved this film for a variety of reasons. I remember seeing the trailer and rolling my eyes and assuming it was some kind of terrible Glee era product trying to capitalize on the success. And honestly it could have been, but that still didn't detract from my enjoyment.

First, so far as I can tell this is an original script/film etc. And whether that's good or bad doesn't detract from my appreciation. So already points for being something new, even if the story is as predictable as you can kind of guess it is. But I've seen Die Hard tons of times. It's about the journey not the destination...

"Glee" and "Mean Girls" have a baby named Pitch Perfect
Definitely a PG-13 flick, this over-the-top story of a talented DJ who discovers the Accapella Diva within is well worth adding to the DVD library. Crazy talented men and women, some sweet relationship development and just enough raunchiness from the ladies to to keep any viewer on their toes, this is a movie that one will watch over and over and over again. Sure, it's a movie with a bunch of pretty people set at a college that looks nothing like reality, but hey . . . stranger things have been made believable on the silver screen.

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Hello I Must Be Going

Cure for Agoraphobia
This is pretty standard romantic comedy fare; the most amusing part is the May/December romance (well, not really December...) which features a (sorta) older woman and a younger man.

A recent divorcée has to move back home because her husband wanted the divorce and she has never held a job. Now she is caught in a spiral of embarrassment, ennui, and agoraphobia. Her well-meaning parents are anxious for her to get out and start to take an interest in life: she hasn't left the house for three months. They decide to throw a party for one of Dad's clients to pave the way for his possible retirement, while at the same time, to motivate their daughter to change out of her old t-shirt and meet some new people.

We meet:
* Melanie Lynskey ("Ever After") is Amy, sorely in need of an antidepressant; she mixes her metaphors and says, "I had the rug pulled over my eyes."
* Blythe Danner ("The Lucky One") is Ruth, her mother, who reads Dr. Seuss to her...

Engaging divorce and family drama
"Hello I Must Be Going" (2012 release; 95 min.) brings the story of Amy (played by Melanie Lynskey), a thirty-something who has just moved back into her parens' house after her husband left and divorced her. Amy hasn't legt the house in three months and doesn't get up before noon. In other words: depressed. Amy's dad, who is a lawyer, is trying to woo a potential new client, and at a dinner party with the potential new client and his extended family including his 19 yr. old stepson Jeremy (played by Christopher Abbott), Jeremy and Amy develop an instant crush on each other. Soon therafter, they have a fully blooming affair. Inevitably, one day, they get found out. To tell you more of the plot would ruin your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Several comments: (1) it must be Melanie Lynskey weekend for me here in Cincinnati: I just saw her yesterday in a (much smaller) role in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and now today she...

All Of Life's Little Curves At One Time
Although this film might be seen as formulaic, it's the two female leads that make it work. Amy is quirky & slightly puzzled & lost in wonder. Her mother is so grounded she can't seem to ever get off the ground. There are dreams & nightmares but they are real life for the characters in this movie & you get to watch how they deal with those moments because like all dreams & nightmares, they tend to come to a quick end. I wouldn't call this a slice of life but compressed life. I'm really glad I watched it & I'll watch it again. Melanie Lynskey is a wonderful actress & she has a natural beauty that reminds me of Kelly MacDonald & Emily Mortimer. Although I know it will not impress her to find this out, she has added another fan to her circle that I am certain is very wide & quite full.

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