http://www.kentucky.com/124/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2008 Kentucky.com Videos and DVDs 60 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:22:25 EDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/465013.html http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/465013.html Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:21 EDT
1. No other show has so artfully and honestly captured the angst and innocence of adolescence.

2. At age 15, Claire Danes gave a Golden Globe-winning performance that puts most adult actors to shame. As Every Girl Angela Chase she played two or three emotions simultaneously, often without dialogue. And IT NEVER SEEMS LIKE ACTING.

3. The supporting cast was perfect: Wilson Cruz as Angela's gay pal Rickie, A.J. Langer as smart-mouthed party animal Rayanne, Devon Gummersall as the dweeb next door (who worships Angela but can never say so). And then there's Jared Leto as the brooding, inarticulate, drop-dead gorgeous Jordan Catalano, whom Angela would love to love if only he didn't behave like a teenage boy.

4. In Angela's parents the series had one of the most believable depictions of marriage ever. It's so uncompromising that you wince and wonder if Graham and Patty (Tom Irwin, Bess Armstrong) will remain a couple.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/465011.html http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/465011.html Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:21 EDT
At the top of the list is "The Mummy" (1999, $29.98), starring Brendan Frasier as adventurer Rick O'Connell, who leads an expedition to Egypt's Hamunaptra, known as the City of the Dead. There, thanks to a series of hair-raising events, they unleash a 3,000-year-old mummy who is set on finding his true love from ancient times.

Rachel Weisz plays archaeology buff Evelyn Carnahan, who falls for O'Connell but is also stalked by Imohotep, the risen mummy. Technically a remake of the more subdued 1932 Mummy film starring Boris Karloff, this updated version is packed with a lot more edge-of-your-seat excitement and compares favorably to the Indiana Jones genre of moviemaking. There are plenty of extras including a peek at "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," which will be released theatrically Aug. 1.

Also from Universal is "The Mummy's Returns" (2001, $29.98). It's nine year later, and Frasier and Weisz are back as husband and wife living in London with their 8-year-old son Alex. The mummy has been revived again and kidnaps Alex, who is wearing a special ancient bracelet. It's back to Hamunaptra for everyone. The film also inroduces the legend of the Scorpion King.

The film is just as breathlessly paced as the first one. Both are excellent examples of how Blu-ray can enhance the home theater movie-viewing experience.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/462893.html http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/462893.html Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:49 EDT
This is actually good news for fans of "Birds of Prey," the short-lived series on the old WB network, since it will at last be released on DVD this week (13 episodes, four discs, $29.95).

Inspired by several comic-book characters, "Birds of Prey," which aired in 2002-03, focused on three women: Helena Kyle (Ashley Scott), the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, known as the Huntress; Barbara Gordon (Dina Meyer), the former Catwoman, now called the Oracle; and Dinah Redmond (Rachel Skarsten), whose crime-fighting future was uncertain as the series began. Also involved with them was police Detective Jesse Reese (Shemar Moore).

The show had a good look, plenty of comic-style atmosphere and a few decent stories. But it's apparent, when you look at the unaired version of the series pilot (included as a DVD extra) and the pilot as televised, that "Birds of Prey" was intended as more thoughtful than the network wanted; the revised pilot has a dumbed-down quality.

And even then, I would have been interested in seeing more than these 13.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/462895.html http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/462895.html Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:49 EDT
1. "The Bucket List"

2. "Fool's Gold"

3. "10,000 B.C."

4. "Vantage Point"]]> http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/462575.html http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/462575.html Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:24 EDT
From where else could the requirement come that every new action flick coin a catchphrase than from the films that gave us half a dozen memorable one-liners, most notably Inspector Harry Callahan's self-satisfied, I'm-this-close-to-dispatching-your-soul-to-hell proclamation, "Go ahead, make my day."

From Arnold Schwarzenegger's "I'll be back" in the first two "Terminator" films to Bruce Willis' "Yippee-kai-yay" in "Die Hard," the catchphrase usually validates the hero's moral - and mortal - superiority and helps fuse our enthusiastic identification with him.

Trouble is, more often than not, the one-liner is uttered just as the hero is about to unleash a big can of vengeful, homicidal whoop on the bad guy.

This is the most significant - and controversial - thematic element Dirty Harry has bequeathed the contemporary cop drama: Harry is as much vigilante as he is Joe Friday. He doesn't bother with such niceties as Miranda rights. Thus the violent reactions the original 1971 film inspired in many critics, including Pauline Kael, who called it "fascist."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/461640.html http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/461640.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:51 EDT
JULY

15: The Bank Job - Lionsgate

15: Shutter - Fox

15: Step Up 2: The Streets - Disney]]> http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/462022.html http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/462022.html Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:53 EDT
The arrangement, revealed at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles, will let Netflix subscribers stream 10,000 movies and TV shows to Xbox consoles for viewing on television sets, beginning this fall. Xbox had movies and shows available for download before, but only half as many.

"This generation of consoles will change the face of home entertainment more than any other generation before," said John Schappert, corporate vice president of Microsoft's interactive entertainment division.

As Microsoft vies for a stronger foothold in the living room, so is rival Sony Corp., which has tried to make its PlayStation 3 into a broader entertainment device by including Blu-ray high-definition DVD players in the consoles.

The deal with Microsoft also marks an important expansion for Netflix, whose 18-month-old streaming service - which supplements its DVD-by-mail program - has been available on computers instead of TVs, unless consumers had bought a small streaming device from a Netflix-backed startup called Roku Inc.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/460823.html http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/460823.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:31 EDT
The arrangement, revealed at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles, will let Netflix subscribers stream 10,000 movies and TV shows to Xbox consoles for viewing on television sets, beginning this fall. Xbox had movies and shows available for download before, but only half as many.

"This generation of consoles will change the face of home entertainment more than any other generation before," said John Schappert, corporate vice president of Microsoft's interactive entertainment division.

As Microsoft vies for a stronger foothold in the living room, so is rival Sony Corp., which has tried to make its PlayStation 3 into a broader entertainment device by including Blu-ray high-definition DVD players in the consoles.

The deal with Microsoft also marks an important expansion for Netflix, whose 18-month-old streaming service - which supplements its DVD-by-mail program - has been available on computers instead of TVs, unless consumers had bought a small streaming device from a Netflix-backed startup called Roku Inc.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/460757.html http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/460757.html Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:31 EDT
The big-budget movie was "Speed Racer," in which she played Trixie. The other film, "Penelope," was made in 2006 but wasn't released until this year. If you missed it, "Penelope" hits DVD on Tuesday.

Ricci says she has no set formula when it comes to choosing her next role.

"It is different with every movie," she says in April during an interview promoting "Speed Racer." "I am constantly looking for something new and different.

Sometimes Ricci picks a script because she wants to work with a certain actor or director. That was the case with "Speed Racer" directors Andy and Larry Wachowski. At other times, it has been whether she thinks the project will be fun. That was the case with "Penelope."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/460767.html http://www.kentucky.com/493/story/460767.html Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:36 EDT
One and two discs, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, $28.96/$34.95, rated PG-13

"Inspired by a true story," director Robert Luketic's movie is about a math professor at M.I.T. (Kevin Spacey) who recruits a group of brilliant students (including Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth) to master blackjack and win a bundle in Las Vegas casinos. Both single- and two-disc editions include a commentary by Luketic and producers Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca and three documentaries ("21 - The Advantage Player," "Basic Strategy: A Complete Film Journal" and "Money Plays: A Tour of the Good Life"). The two-disc edition adds a bonus digital copy of the movie.

-"Four Jazz Favorites: Bird, Pete Kelly's Blues, Blues in the Night, Round Midnight, Warner Home Video, various prices and ratings"

Warner Home Video releases these jazz-oriented films: "Bird" (1988) tells the story of jazz pioneer Charlie "Bird" Parker and helped establish future Oscar-winners Clint Eastwood as a director and Forest Whitaker as an actor; "Pete Kelly's Blues" (1953) stars Jack Webb ("Dragnet") as a Kansas City coronet player who fights the mob; "Blues in the Night" (1941) features a Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer score and more drama about musicians and mobsters, and "Round Midnight" (1986), French director Bertrand Tavernier's love letter to '50s jazz, starring real-life tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon.]]>