Amazon.co.uk Review
The Queen of Pop has done it again and offered her fans and music impresarios alike a musical performance to be remembered. Madonna: Drowned World Tour--filmed in her home town of Detroit on August 26, 2001--is an amazing pop concert and a visually stunning modern-dance and multi-media piece encompassing all the recent incarnations of this chameleon-like performer. Never one to shy away from championing new styles, both in clothes and music, Madonna is still as raunchy as she was on her Erotica tour, but the Drowned World Tour also offers a much more effeminate and intelligent side to her performance. This time we see a Geisha/Japanese performance during "Frozen" and a jokey southern-belle line-dancing romp during "Don't Tell Me".The monarch of performance has also discovered the best way to undergo an elaborate costume change without keeping your audience waiting--simply ply them with stunningly directed music videos on a multitude of screens and hang two solitary male dancers upside down to perform feats of dance perfection. This truly impressive show holds as much for Madonna fans as it does for anyone who is interested in studying modern performance and dance routines--and Madonna is certainly well versed enough to teach in this field with almost 20 successful years in the business. The Drowned World Tour--rumoured to be her last live show--goes to prove that Madonna still reigns supreme.
On the DVD: Although the special features are hardly a ray of light--simply an impressive photo gallery and some Web links--the picture and sound on this DVD are excellent. As a champion of all things new Madonna's DVD uses a picture perfect format of 4:3, and superb sound quality: with a choice of Dolby Digital 2.0, 5.1 and DTS 5.1 you'll feel like you're at the concert in a prime seat. Another impressive feature is the ability to view the song lyrics, allowing you to strut around your living room like a prima donna with this glamorous version of Karaoke! --Nikki Disney
Customer Reviews:
Drowned World, Shinning Madonna!.......2004-03-19
The Evolution of Theater.......2002-11-20
Madonna rocks the stadium to its foundations! ! ! ! ! ! ! !.......2002-07-07
In June 2001, Madonna announced that she would be touring for the first time in eight years since 1993's The Girlie Show Live as part of the Drowned World Tour 2001. Millions of fans worldwide jammed the phone lines to try and get tickets to this truly amazing experience. Dubbed the most anticipated pop concert of all time, all six shows at Wembley Arena sold out in six hours. It was the same in Spain, Germany, Italy, France and countless states across the US. The price of tickets were higher than normal concert tickets, with some Internet auctioners willing to shell out £3000 for a front row seat. So any Madonna fan should have this wonderful concert to re-live that once in a lifetime experience. Madonna's Drowned World Tour was THE concert of 2001.
The show starts of with Madonna singing Drowned World/Substitute For Love. The crowd goes wild at the sight of Madonna in a kilt. Then it's time to get the house pumping with a superb performance of Impressive Instant from her No.1 2000 album, Music. The crowd goes wild when she performs THAT explicit scene! Madonna may have dumped the sexual antics from the early 90's, but she still does it in her performances! Candy Perfume Girl from the 1998 album Ray Of Light is next in line. Madonna shows us she can play a guitar with a message at the end; "F**k off, motherf**kers!". The audience just can't get enough of it. Madonna says, "Do I make you horny?!" before breaking out into her brilliant hit, Beautiful Stranger. Ray Of Light is next in line and has to be one of the Top 5 performances of the whole show - the energy just surges through the arena and overcomes its residents with satisfaction, love and pure bliss for their Queen. Paradise (Not For Me) is actually performed on a screen instead of a performance on stage. The performance of Frozen, Madonna's comback single from early 1998 is amazing - check out the 57ft sleeves on her arms! Open Your Heart is just a Chinese instrumental that lasts about 30 seconds - that shouldn't really be included on the tracklisting. Nobody's Perfect is another great performance. Sky Fits Heaven is another highlight of the concert. Madonna bungie jumps around the stage fighting crime while managing to sing! Mer Girl Parts I and II are pretty disappointing where I Deserve It is another good performance where Madonna shows off her guitar skills. Her well recieved performance of Don't Tell Me is another highlight. Hay-stacks and cowboys galore are the focus of this performance. The crowd are frantic when Madonna joins back-up singers and dancers as they clump together and dance - remeniscent of her MTV Video Music Awards 1990 Vogue performance. An old classic from 1995, Human Nature is up next. Madonna gets on a Buckin Bronco and rides around like a crazy woman! She takes the time to thank her country and her Dad - because he's "so cool". She teases the crowd with "I've got a new song to play for you - never heard before". The crowd get all excited before she belts out The Funny Song. This is obviously not gonna be a song of hers because it's so rubbish! Madonna then sings Secret from her 1994 album Bedtime Stories followed by Gone from her 2000 album Music. Don't Cry For Me Argentina (Instrumental) is next followed by a disturbing, pornographic cartoon Introduction for the Spanish version of What It Feels Like For A Girl. I know Madonna likes to shock, but she crosses the line here. I felt physically sick. The crowd go wild when she belts out La Isla Bonita followed by Holiday - Madonna's ultimate classic. She's performed Holiday at every one of her concerts (Virgin Tour - 1984, Who's That Girl - 1987, Blonde Ambition - 1990 and The Girlie Show Live - 1993), so why not at this one? The crowd love her for it. But the biggest roar comes from the last song, Music. The first few words of Music, "do you like to, boogie woogie?" and the crowd are in awe.
OVERALL GRADE: 10/10
Madonna's Drowned World Tour 2001 is a concert to remember. There's something here for everyone. A lot of people wanted her to sing more older songs, but she'll be saving that for a Greatest Hits Tour spanning all her hits in a few years time, mark my words...
Absolutely amazing!.......2002-03-09
The Beautiful Stranger Keeps Getting Better.......2002-03-08
From the beginning you know you're in for something amazing. The opening music sends shivers up your spine as the crowds go absolutely ballistic. Madonna performs 'Drowned World' with a husky, new-found vocal ability. Her voice sounds fantastic, although she does get breathless during the more upbeat numbers.
She looks fantastic with a guitar, too, as she performs 'Candy Perfume Gil' a la Courtney Love. Frozen is another vocal gem, as is Mer Girl, Gone, Lo Que Siente La Mujer and La Isla Bonita.
The stage show is superb. She once vowed never to compromise her artistic integrity. Well this is as artistic as it comes, with symbols of female empowerment throughout, from her flying through the air and whooping ninja ass to her smiling through her bruises during 'Mer Girl' to show she always comes out on top no matter how hard critics beat her into the ground.
Some of the show is serious and dark, whereas her sense of humour is shown during 'Don't Tell Me' and 'Beautiful Stranger'. Country, cyberpunk, and a reflective acoustic strum on a guitar to 'I Deserve It' show her depth and range as an artist.
She sounds and looks better than ever. May she rule the world forever!
Average customer rating:
|
Vincent - The Full Story
Starring: Waldemar Januszczak Manufacturer: Revolver Entertainment ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0007LPLUQ Release Date: 2005-07-25 ![]() |
Customer Reviews:
Vincent Disk 1 Half the story.......2008-03-13
It is anoying when they get simple things wrong.......2007-06-17
Poor Value.......2006-02-20
Van Gogh Heaven.......2005-10-04
Simply put, if you like Vincent Van Gogh and are interested in him or just like his works this DVD gets the thumbs up and will not disappoint.
Expertly presented by Waldemar Januszczak, he has thankfully thoroughly researched his subject with enormous accuracy giving us three hours of fascinating information about on of the worlds favourite artists.
Just brilliant! Well done Waldemar
Good story.......2005-08-20
Average customer rating:
|
The Aviator [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Alec Baldwin , Kate Beckinsale , Frances Conroy , Willem Dafoe , and Stanley de Santis Director: Martin Scorsese Manufacturer: Warner Home Video ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00080ZG1A Release Date: 2005-05-24 ![]() |
Customer Reviews:
Oh, for some antibacterial hand gel!.......2005-12-28
My opinion of Leonardo DiCaprio has never been more than one of indifference. But here, as millionaire aviator Howard Hughes, he excels.
The film opens in the late 1920s as Hughes is filming "Hell's Angels", his World War I air combat epic that was the most expensive Hollywood production to date, and ends with the one and only test flight of his Hercules military transport (a.k.a. "The Spruce Goose") in Los Angeles Harbor in November 1947. In between, we see depicted the highlights of his amazing life: his personally achieved air speed record (352 mph), his aerial circumnavigation of the globe, his controlling ownership of TWA, his development of the Constellation (perhaps the most beautiful passenger aircraft ever built), a nearly fatal crash in his FX-11 prototype reconnaissance aircraft, his battle with the government and Pan Am to prevent the latter's monopolization of American international air routes, the squabble with censors over Jane Russell's cleavage in his western "The Outlaw", and his liaison with starlets, especially Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale).
Director Martin Scorsese doesn't flinch from showing Howard's darker side: his increasing obsession with germs transferred by hand contact and his slow slide into madness. The film gives a new meaning to hand washing and the recycling of milk bottles. (What Hughes wouldn't have given for the waterless, antibacterial hand gel!) However, no mention is made of Howard's addiction to painkilling drugs after the FX-11 mishap, and which contributed to his eventual mental deterioration into being a completely reclusive figure. Nor, somewhat surprisingly, is there any epilog in the end credits regarding the remainder of Hughes's life and the fates of that which he wrought.
For me, Blanchett as Hepburn almost stole the show. Cate had Kate's mannerisms down pat; she was positively resplendent in the role with an Oscar-worthy performance. Beckinsale is luminous as Ava Gardner, and Alan Alda is effective as the oily Senator from Maine and Pan Am's lackey, Ralph Brewster.
Scorsese's use of special FX and sets is impressive, principally the recreation of the interior of Hollywood's Coconut Grove nightclub, the onboard re-creation of the test flight of the Spruce Goose, and Howard's filming of the aerial dogfights for "Hell's Angels".
At a 2 hour and 45 minute run time, AVIATOR is an all-American epic.
Average customer rating: |
Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Brigid Berlin , Taylor Mead , Paul Morrissey , Larry Rivers , and Patricia Hearst Director: Shelly Dunn Fremont , and Vincent Fremont Manufacturer: New Video Group ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD ASIN: B00005QBYU Release Date: 2001-11-20 ![]() |
Average customer rating: |
Kennedy [1983] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Martin Sheen , John Shea , E.G. Marshall , Geraldine Fitzgerald , and Vincent Gardenia Director: Jim Goddard Manufacturer: Lance Entertainment ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD ASIN: B0000AKCME Release Date: 2003-10-07 ![]() |
Average customer rating:
|
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc [2000]
Starring: Milla Jovovich , Dustin Hoffman , Faye Dunaway , John Malkovich , and Tchéky Karyo Director: Luc Besson ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00004X0V1 ![]() |
Amazon.co.uk Review
Over the years, many film directors have attempted to tell the story of legendary 15th-century heroine Joan of Arc, a simple country girl who claimed she was inspired by God to lead the French troops in a victorious assault on the mighty English army. Luc Besson's 1999 epic might not be the best version of her life, but it's certainly the biggest. The movie cost a reported $60 million. Even if you are terminally unimpressed by the scale of such recent blockbusters as Gladiator, your eyes will pop out at the sheer number of bodies (living and dead) that Besson has assembled for the dynamic battle scenes. The lavish sets and costumes are almost equally gobsmacking, though neither will show to maximum advantage on the small screen. That's a pity because size is the only thing Joan of Arc really has going for it--as a human drama, it falls completely flat.The historical Joan was eventually made a saint by the Catholic Church, and earlier biopics tended to treat her celestial visions as literal fact. It was probably a mistake for Besson and his co-screenwriter Andrew Birkin to take a more psychological approach and present them as figments of her hysterical imagination. It makes it hard to work up the necessary empathy when the spectacle revolves around a confused and neurotic babe who couldn't organise a Tupperware party, let alone a vast military campaign. Milla Jovovich (the star of Besson's previous The Fifth Element and formerly his wife) doesn't help matters with her shrill and amateurish performance. But a couple of the supporting players are passably amusing--John Malkovich camps it up energetically as Charles, the dispossessed French king whom Joan reinstates, while Faye Dunaway wears outlandish headgear and carries on like a science-fiction creation in the role of his scheming mother-in-law. (The less said the better about Dustin Hoffman's pompous turn as Joan's personified conscience.) Besson keeps to the same glossy visual style even when the Maid is burning at the stake, but it isn't enough to prevent this empty shell of a movie from being a colossal yawn. --Peter Matthews
Customer Reviews:
Very poor direction.......2008-01-20
An interesting Joan, but not my Joan.......2007-10-28
Fairly watchable version but overlong.......2007-10-08
Milla Jovovich shines.......2007-09-06
Much maligned but I liked it.......2007-05-18
Average customer rating: |
The Aviator [2004] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Alec Baldwin , Kate Beckinsale , Frances Conroy , Willem Dafoe , and Stanley de Santis Director: Martin Scorsese Manufacturer: Warner Home Video ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD ASIN: B00095LIE8 Release Date: 2005-05-24 ![]() |
UK DVD: