Our Picks Reviews - Page 25

Down…Set…Hike! Get in the game with this rundown of the 50 greatest professional football players of the modern (post-1950) era, plus past-and-present profiles of the NFL’s 32 teams, a history of the Super Bowl and a section on “Legends in the Making.” Packed with 120 color photos of Peyton Manning, O.J. Simpson, Jerry Rice, Jim Brown, Joe Namath, Terry Bradshaw, Deion Sanders and many, many other touchdown titans, it’s sure to be a hit with any gridiron fan.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

from Amazon.com

0 comments, Share your comments on this review

George Clooney directs as well as stars—alongside Renee Zellweger, plus John Krasinski from TV’s The Office—in this romping romantic comedy set in the bumpy, muddy, hardscrapple world of 1920s football. Bonus features include commentary by Clooney, deleted scenes and four featurettes, including one revealing the special effects that convincingly transformed modern settings into the movie’s authentic-looking period backdrops.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

from Amazon.com

0 comments, Share your comments on this review

The veteran CBS newsman shares his thoughts on a sweeping variety of topics in this collection of 171 short, colorful essays, most of them commentaries he delivered as the weekly wrap-up of Face the Nation over the last 14 years. From war and peace and politics to cell-phone etiquette, baseball and Paris Hilton, the topics take you on an engrossing journey inside the wide-ranging mind of one of America’s most celebrated TV journalists.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

0 comments, Share your comments on this review

Three classic coming-of-age movie comedies from the 1980s re-emerge in this bonus-crammed repackage (in a miniature combination locker—clever!) of The Breakfast Club, Weird Science and Sixteen Candles. All were directed by the era’s Hollywood golden boy, John Hughes, and featured young stars from a pool of adolescent actors that came to be known as “the Brat Pack,” including Molly Ringwold, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez and Anthony Michael Hall—the only Packster to pull off a high-school hat trick by starring in all three. DVD extras include new interviews with cast members, audio commentary and the TV pilot for the USA Network series spawned by Weird Science.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

from Amazon.com

0 comments, Share your comments on this review

Done in conjunction with a Turner Classic Movies film festival of the same name airing Nov. 18 and 25, this compendium of unforgettable movie pairings from the era of big-studio productions is packed with rare photos, juicy factoids, delightful trivia and authoritative insight into the on- and off-screen sparks generated by Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, Elvis Presley and Ann-Margaret, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, and more than 30 other classic silver-screen couples. A must for movie buffs who’d like to bask in the sweet, sometimes sweltering passions of Hollywood’s golden age.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

from Amazon.com

0 comments, Share your comments on this review

Tina Fey and Amy Pohler, both of whom cut their comedic teeth on Saturday Night Live, are big-screen standouts in this smart, sassy and frequently side-splittingly funny story of a successful single businesswoman who hires a pregnancy surrogate to bear her child. When their very different worlds collide, it’s nine months of hilarious maternal tug of war. DVD extras include deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, commentary by Fey and Pohler and an interview with the actresses and director. (Rated PG-13)
—Neil Pond, American Profile

from Amazon.com

0 comments, Share your comments on this review

In 1985, marine biologist Ballard surprised the world by discovering the wreckage of the Titanic. Since then, dozens of expeditions have poked around the great cruise ship’s ruins, which continue to decay with each passing year. Vowing to capture high-quality images of the sunken landmark before it’s claimed by the sea forever, Ballard returned years later with hi-tech deep-sea cameras to bring back the large-format color photos in this collection, providing an eye-opening field trip 12,500 feet beneath the surface of the North Atlantic.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

from Amazon.com

0 comments, Share your comments on this review

Fans of ’50s music will feel like they’re in heaven—or, at least, tooling around in a convertible with the top down, cruising the drive-in and swooning to the sweet, boppin’, bobby-soxin’ sounds of Frankie Avalon, Little Richard, The Platters, Buddy Holly and other musical blasts from the past. These 158 jukebox hits from all the acts you remember—and several you probably don’t—include 2 CDs dedicated to the one-hit wonders who gave us “Earth Angel,” “Rockin’ Robin,” “Book of Love” and 30 other AM radio mini-masterpieces.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

Time-Life purchase link

0 comments, Share your comments on this review

Blast off on a flight of imagination with these 150 full-color NASA-commissioned illustrations created over the past five decades by various artists, including Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, James Wyeth, William Wegman and Annie Leibovitz. With fanciful depictions of spacemen, rockets, liftoffs, lunar landings and other aspects of America’s space program, it’s a treat for armchair astronauts of any age.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

from Amazon.com

0 comments, Share your comments on this review

It wasn’t a box-office hit when it opened in 1998, but this quirky comedy has become a pop-cultural phenomenon and inspired a growing legion of fans who just can’t get enough of the unique comedic fumes swirling around its terrific cast (Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and John Turturro), inspired dialogue and addictively absurd storyline. All-new DVD extras include a look at the annual Lebowski Fest, national gatherings of diehards who have immortalized the movie and its characters. (Rated R)
—Neil Pond, American Profile

from Amazon.com

0 comments, Share your comments on this review