I picked this up at a local Borders on sale for $10. Being an animal lover and enthusiast, I figured what the hay. After looking it over, I realized the fish family isn't covered in the book. Which is kind of a downer but not a major gripe.
The book is pretty good and covers a lot of species of animals. Problem is, the descriptions of most, if not all, of the animals is around 2-3 small paragraphs at most. It's not an extensive encyclopedia or a book that goes into great detail; just enough to cover the usuals of each animal.
All in all, not a bad book but if you're looking for an in-depth book, this isn't going to be what you're looking for.

Being a lifelong Dinosaur fan, I had to check out JP///. The trailers were making the movie seem really big and fresh with bringing Spinosaurus in to replace Tyrannosaurus as the starring role as super-predator in the JP series. The film moves at a pretty fast rate which can be good and bad. The Dinosaurs in the film are more believable now that the CGI programmers had the ability to make the Dinos' skin wobble when they moved and to have other parts of their body be in sync with the rest of their body.
The characters really don't have much development in the film which is okay considering you came to see Dinosaurs. But there is just enough character development for the moviegoer to understand each character.
My only gripes are with the film that it just seemed like the Dino action seemed to go downhill as the movie progressed. It starts off very well with the Spinosaurus attacking the plane and then eventually battling Tyrannosaurus (which I was hoping wouldn't show up until the final minutes of the film, giving it a climatic ending). After that, the Dinos seemed kinda sparse and the action shorter and shorter. The raptors also kinda got old. Like with T-rex, the filmmakers should have replaced the raptors with other Dinos. Maybe Baryonyxs? Also some science is forgotten in this film. But they had Jack Horner as their Dino supervisor, so it was a given some wrenches would be thrown in the mix. Also, the film seemed really short. With some newer dinos added to the screen that have never been seen before, I was hoping that they would have some pretty nifty Dinosaur battle sequences and Dinosaur-human encounters.
All in all, while JP/// was, somewhat, of a letdown for me, it still provided the goods for the most part.

Being a lifelong Godzilla fan, I was excited to hear that this film would be released onto DVD shortly after the previous two Godzilla films.
But after watching the disappointing Godzilla X Megaguirus and realizing that Masaki Tezuka also directed this film. I decided to expect the worst. After watching the film when I came home from the video store, I was a bit more impressed this time by Mr. Tezuka. The story seemed to be a little more well-rounded and the movie, as a whole, seemed much better than Godzilla X Megaguirus. But anyone who pays close attention to the two films will notice that the stories are pretty much identical! Something I found non-original on Mr. Tezuka's part and disappointing considering that this was his second shot at directing a Godzilla film. Also his treatement of the Monster King was poor. During Godzilla and Mechagodzilla's first encounter, Mechagodzilla fires a barrage of missiles at Godzilla, and Godzilla just stands there, roars, and retreats into the sea. The ending battle, while somewhat better, still made Godzilla look dumbfounded and cowardly.
The special effects were very top-notch considering Godzilla films have had a bad reputation for producing some cheesey effects.
Overall, Godzilla X Mechagodzilla is somewhat better than Godzilla X Megaguirus, but it still falls pretty short. I wasn't impressed much by the story (since it's pretty much an exact duplicate of GXM) and I also wasn't impressed much by the monster battles. I look at this film as one of the worst and also as one of the best in the Millennium series; but that all depends on how I look at the film. The film excels in certain areas, but then hurts itself in some of the more crucial areas. In the end, while I have constant mixed feelings on the film, I'll conclude by stating that it is a decent/average Godzilla film.

After obtaining this collection for $20 at a local retail store, I knew I was getting more than my money's worth! The films are shown in the best picture form and the sound is very crisp and clear!
Out of all the three Legacy sets, this one has the best selection of films on it.
My only gripe was that mine included a plate of the Van Helsing Frankenstein version and it was GLUED to the collector's box! After wiping the glue off with a damp cloth and quickly drying it, it looks like new. But sadly, the glue with the dampness from the cloth sort of made the front part of my Dracula box bubbly. So be careful when cleaning them if you get a Van Helsing plate with yours! They should have just shrinked wrapped the plates with the film instead of gluing them!

While the movie is only 1 hour and 7 minutes in length, it is a very entertaining feature. The story flows along smoothly and at a consistant pace. Which is very hard to find in any film nowadays. The character's portrayals are very well done and the story is solid and doesn't get sidetracked with side plots. All in all, while short, a very entertaining Batman feature worth owning!

Being a lifelong TMNT fan, I was excited to see this box set at a local Super Target for $30! While the older cartoon series is long gone and the last movie being made in 1992, my love for the Turtles kinda disappeared...until now!
This is the ultimate set for the fans of the TMNT! It's cheaper than buying the DVDs individually and you get a nice box display to go with them!
All three movies can be seen in full screen or widescreen! The picture and sound qualities are superb! Probably some of the best I've seen on any DVD! The menus are nicely animated! As far as extras go, there isn't much. You have theatrical trailers and the same game on each DVD: Pick That Flick. A trivia game where they show you a picture of a scene from another New Line Cinema film of the late 80s early 90s and you have to guess which movie it is out of a list of options. Silly yes, but nice and fun to burn a few minutes on.
Overall, not a whole lot of extras on the DVDs but the movies themselves were transfered very well onto the DVD format! Plus you can see the films in both full and widescreen! A worthy set to any fan of the TMNT!

The film is easily one of the worst ever done as far as effects goes. The backdrops are easily painted sheets and you can see where the sheet meet the ground in the film. Plus a lot of the monsters show their strings as well; like the bat-rat-spider.
Although the film has major flaws effects wise, the story is entertaining and pretty neat. Even the concept of some of the alien life forms were neat despite their flaws.
The acting is pretty bad but does have good parts. A lot of you might be asking, well since you keep talking about the film's bad sides, why did you give it 5 stars then? I gave it 5 stars because it delivers what it was supposed to: entertainment. The film is worth the buy if you are a fan of these types of movies. In the end, an entertaining film.

When I first saw this film last November, I was expecting your average alien film where people are attacked by hostile aliens. Was I ever wrong! Instead of hostile aliens, you have aliens who landed on earth by mistake and have to shapeshift into human beings so they can get the necessary tools and supplies they need to repair their ship.
The acting is very good although Carlson's acting seems to get a little low at some points. Overall, a great film that is worth at least a look.

Them! has always been one of my favorite 50's American monster flicks. The story and the human drama are very well done and do not overdo themselves.
Really the only sour part about this film is the ants' screen time is very limited, but sweet when they are on screen!
A must have for those who are fans of the genre!

I had never seen the film until this past week when I picked it up at a local Borders store for $15. To tell you the truth, I had some high hopes for the films, but like most monster films of the era, the monster's time was limited and short. So I wasn't expecting too much.
The film starts out pretty slow with Ken Tobey and his sub crew trying to figure out what they got themselves caught up in (the octopus).
The human parts of the film are like any other monster film where a man falls in love with a beautiful woman and they love each other in the end. The acting is pretty decent but seems to drag on for FAR too long! Plus the monster scenes were much shorter in this one compared to other Harryhausen films which was disappointing.
Overall, the film does deliver and is an enjoyment. But the overdone human drama and very few scenes of the octopus make this movie somewhat dull. A good film, but not one of Harryhausen's best as far as entertainment value.