|
|
Content by Chad Fleming
Commentateur n° : 29,598
Votes Utiles:
1
|
|
|
Reviews Written by
Chad Fleming (Decatur, GA)
|
Reviewer Rank:
29598 |
Page : 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Miramax - get your facts straight!, Mar 2 2004
All three of these volumes claim to contain versions of their respective movies that are "Enhanced for 16x9 televisions" yet upon closer examination, each of the volumes contains at least one (and in the case of Volume III, TWO) movies that are in the same crappy matted widescreen format that Miramax has been pushing for the last several years. The culprit in the this volume is Life is Beautiful. I have nothing against widescreen - just let the DVD player insert the matting and use the full resolution of the DVD for useful picture information. I suspect these box sets are a way for Miramax to dump the older (non anamorphic widescreen) versions of these movies on unsuspecting 4x3 t.v. owners - chances are they'll never know the difference until they try to watch them on a newer 16x9 t.v. - at which time it will be too late to return them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Package incorrectly identifies all movies as anamorphic, Mar 2 2004
I purchased both this volume and Volume I from a local bricks and mortar store after I saw the labels indicating that the packaged DVDs contained widescreen anamorphic (a.k.a. "Enhanced for 16x9 televisions") and Dolby Digital 5.1 versions of The English Patient, Il Postino, and Shakespeare in Love. Sadly, 'tis not true. I don't know whether the false labeling on the packaging was accidental or intentional but it appears that Miramax has simply packaged the same crappy widescreen (non anamorphic) DVD versions of these movies that I've been refusing to buy for several years now. Needless to say, all of the movies are going back tomorrow. As far as I know, Il Postino and The English Patient are STILL only available in a matted widescreen format. Only Shakespeare in Love is available in an anamorphic widescreen format. If you only own a 4x3 format T.V. you probably won't notice a difference - until you upgrade to a 16x9 set. Then, like me, you'll never buy a "fullscreen" or matted/widescreen DVD again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mediocre at best, Sep 25 2002
While it's not necessarily a bad book, it doesn't even begin to live up to the hype surrounding it. Book magazine had a small and glowing review of the book as did the Book Sense 76 list for September and October. Several independent bookstores are giving it prominent shelf position - often with staff recommendations. I generally put a lot of stock in the reviews of these two publications, but I was very disappointed this time.The plot itself had a lot of promise, but none of the possibilities touched upon were ever fully fleshed out. The story was begging for a book three times as long with three times the detail. If some of the other reviewers are correct in their assertions that the author primarily writes children's books, it explains quite a bit about the simplistic (and to be honest, quite bland) prose. Buy it for your preteen kid(s) - or better yet, borrow it from the library.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An obviously frantic attempt to release a long overdue book, Nov 18 1999
I so anticipated Tom Wolfe's new book that I bought a copy for both myself and my Father. Regrettably, it turned out to be one of the worst gifts that I've given in recent years. With few exceptions, Tom Wolfe's jounalistic and fiction works have been some of the most engaging, entertaining, and worthwhile mass market books that I've read. A Man in Full is a disappointing departure from Wolfe's usual quality.On it's own, A Man in Full might have been a decent, though far from perfect, read. Unfortunately, when compared to Bonfire of the Vanities, and a comparison is unavoidable, it's a disaster. Despite the 10+ year interval between Wolfe's writing of the two books, it seems as if Wolfe was unable to come up with anything new. A Man in Full is essentially a poorly executed copy of everything that was wonderful and original in Bonfire of the Vanities. The styles (as expected) are almost identical, the motivations and personalities of the characters are a far too obvious one-to-one mapping, and while the story is admittedly somewhat different, the endings are not. Bonfire was truly a great work of fiction but A Man in Full is anything but. This is one of the few Tom Wolfe books that I don't recommend. Stick with The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Wolfe was and is a great journalist, but it's clear that The Bonfire of the Vanities is his one and only great work of fiction.
|
|
|
Page : 1
|
