The World at War (Blu-ray Review)
December 17th, 2010 by Sean Ferguson
The World at War is without question, the definitive historical documentary account of World War II. The scope and breadth of this documentary series is unparalleled as it covers events from 1933 through the war’s end in 1945. Commissioned by Thames Television in 1969, it took four years to assemble all of the footage (including some rare footage in color) and it ended up costing what would now cost around $12 million dollars to produce. Continue reading ‘The World at War (Blu-ray Review)’
The calendar year of 2010 started off a little rough, in my opinion, for the world of movies. It was a little too rough, if you don’t mind me saying. Anyway, it was not until the month of March that I saw the first film I deemed worthy of even talking about, Shutter Island. Needless to say, by April I really had my reservations about this year. I was let down by Iron Man 2 and a few others I had high hopes for, but I knew (although I could not prove it at the time) that Mr. Nolan was about to conjure up something really special in Inception, so I kept my head held high in eager anticipation of being proved wrong about this lackluster calendar year. Was I disappointed? 
Knight and Day represents a return to form for Tom Cruise who had a choice of movies to pick from (The Tourist was one of them) before he decided to sign on to this movie. I believe it was a good decision since Knight and Day lets Tom Cruise be Tom Cruise. There’s a lot of action and humor in the movie and it really provides a showcase to remind people why Tom Cruise became a movie star in the first place. 
Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is a sequel of sorts to the original animated Walt Disney classic. It’s been thirteen years since Alice left Wonderland, and things have changed quite a bit in her life and also in Wonderland. This updated take on the classic story by Lewis Carroll, tweaked the original story in a lot of ways to make the unreal land become more real for viewers by giving the characters some history and valid reasons for their behavior. 
Space: 1999 is hard to categorize. It’s a mix of Forbidden Planet, Star Trek, and 2001 – A Space Odyssey and yet it’s it’s own thing as well. All of the sets for the show were supposed to be originally for the second season of creator Gerry Anderson’s show UFO, but when that was canceled he had to come up with a new plan. He retooled the show to focus on the moon-base concept that was already planned for and from that Space: 1999 was created. 
Walt Disney intended Bambi to follow Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but his quest for perfection and other issues, delayed Bambi for years before it became the fifth animated classic released in 1942. The timeless tale of man vs. nature, this is one of Walt Disney’s most beloved movies. 
In the interest of full disclosure, the Beatles are my favorite band and I’ve enjoyed all of their post-Beatles efforts as well. Now that that’s out of the way, LENNONYC is a glimpse into the life of John Lennon after the Beatles disbanded and he moved to New York City with Yoko Ono. Lennon loved New York City and proclaimed it to be his new home but his vocal and effective anti-war stance quickly brought the full force of the U.S. Government down upon him. This is a look into the life and times of John Lennon who while trying to discover what kind of life he wanted also had to fight from being deported from America for being who he was. 
The third movie in the Step Up Trilogy, and the first dance movie ever to film in 3D, Step Up 3 (D) will arrive on Blu-ray On December 21, 2010. Adam Sevani and Alyson Stoner, who portrayed Moose from Step Up 2 the Streets and Camille Gage from Step Up return for the third movie and take on the main roles. If you’d like to read what Gregg Senko of Why So Blu thought of the movie, you can find out by clicking 
Walt Disney’s thirteenth animated classic that was released in 1951, is finally getting the high definition treatment and will be released on February 1, 2010. The movie is based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with a little bit of his Through the Looking-Glass as well. 
There have been countless movie versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Disney has now been involved with three of them alone! Their first one was with Mickey and the gang, then came The Muppet Christmas Carol with Michael Caine, and now this movie with Jim Carrey. I can’t think of any other property that has received that many remakes! This time around, it’s directed by Robert Zemeckis and all of the performances have been motion-captured which really offered some new possibilities for the filmmakers to expand the story and the scale of the movie, especially when you factor in the 3D experience.
Baz Luhrmann got his big break by directing Strictly Ballroom which of course led to William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and the final installment of his Red Curtain Trilogy Moulin Rouge, which was then followed by Australia. Like most of his movies, Strictly Ballroom is highly theatrical and has a heightened drama to it that can either help a film (Moulin Rouge), or can hurt it (Romeo and Juliet). 
Not many people are aware of the role that Walt Disney played in furthering relations between the United States and South America. It’s a little known fact that in 1941, the State Department’s Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs asked Disney if he would consider traveling to South America on a goodwill tour to support its “Good Neighbor” policy. In exchange, the US Government would finance his next movie (which would later become Saludos Amigos). 
Once upon a time, a magical kingdom lost its King and the magic that had protected it for decades began to disappear. Try as they might, the caretakers of the kingdom couldn’t restore the missing magic no matter what they did. With the King gone, no one knew how to lead the kingdom and some felt things should stay the same while others saw an opportunity to change everything. Eventually, that conflict sent the kingdom in an upheaval but like all good fairy-tales, this one eventually had a happy ending. 
I was very happy to receive to be able to review this collection of holiday classics since they’ve been been a part of my family’s holiday tradition for as long as I can remember. I’m sure that’s true for most people since these specials have been shown on television every year since they first started airing way back in 1965. And every year, people still continue to watch them. 
