DVD: The Kingdom

When a baseball game is being played full of men, woman and children in Saudi Arabia gets attacked by terrorists in broad daylight, the FBI wants to come in and investigate. When they get there they are basically told that they can only walk around the crime scene and not touch anything. Realizing that no one here will help them. They talk to the prince himself to have them investigate to catch these killer. All awhile the attackers are planning there next targets, the FBI agents. Everything leads to a 30 minutes of nothing but intense non-stop action for any action fan.

From right off the bat The Kingdom grabbed my attention. Right away I was on the edge of my seat and throughout I never sat back. The whole story had me going. I thought Jamie Foxx had a solid performance as Ronald Fleury, after his friend dies he tries everything to get him and his other co-workers over to Saudi Arabia to investigate. The One who also stood out for me was Jason Bateman he had the most funniest moments throughout the movie as well as Jeremy Piven, in his very brief moments on the screen. Mind you Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and the rest of the cast do great jobs also.

Peter Berg does a great job for me, I thought the hand-held camera was the way to go mostly during the last 30 minutes when its nothing but action. The camera makes us feel that we are right there in the middle of all the stuff that going on where its when the characters are searching around for clue or if its during a gun battle or car chase through the streets of Saudi Arabia.

I was never bored waiting for something big to happen. During The Kingdom I was constantly on the edge of my seat with the story. This is a very good movie and that is why I recommend The Kingdom.

DVD

The Kingdom DVD is presented in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound along with both Spanish and French 5.1 Dolby. With English, Spanish and French subtitles. The Feature include:

• Deleted Scenes.
• Character by Character: The Apartment Shootout.
• Constructing the Freeway Sequence.
• Creating the Kingdom.
• History Of The Kingdom: An Interactive Timeline.
• Commentary With Director Peter Berg.

The Kingdom DVD is pretty well packed with special features. Everything fits together nicely and it goes along with a very good entertaining movie. Some of the features are about the action sequences from the making of the car/freeway sequence are good and funny to watch. Overall everything is a great addition. I would recommend The Kingdom DVD as a Buy.

DVD: Robin-B-Hood

One of my favorite distributors Dragon Dynasty has brought #21 Robin-B-Hood (use to be titled Rob-B-Hood) to DVD.

Jackie Chan and Louis Koo play two thief's who take whatever they can get money for. In till one heist has them looking after a baby. The baby bring responsibility to the two character changing they way they do business forever.

As a big fan of mostly all Jackie Chan films I was really excited for Rob-B-Hood to come out, and knowing Yuen Baio is it is, only a small part, also a big plus. In Jackie Chan's most recent films (with the exception of Rush Hour 3) he's been making more and movies with much better story rather than just having half of the movie consisting with fight/action scenes, it as more of a heart to it. Robin-b-Hood is a very good movie its one of Chan best as of late, I liked the Myth but this one to me has a much stronger story.

While this has a good story it sure doesn't take a lot of good old Jackie Chan action, it has a wonderfully done chase sequence that had me on the edge of my seat. Also a great martial arts fight scene in the apartment with a lot of enemies around trying to kill Jackie Chan and one there to arrest him. Very good stuff. As with almost every movie that Jackie Chan is in you can expect some laugh out loud funny moments. Robin-B-Hood is no different, there is this one scene that every time I watch it it always has me laughing. When Jackie Chan's character is movie the baby through there apartment with their baby holding on to the mop he's dragging around, they pass Louis Koo's character who is vacuuming and in a mix up the baby is being sucked onto the vacuum. And while Louis Koo lifts up the vacuum the look on his face is hilarious. Robin-B-Hood (or just Rob-B-Hood) is a wonderful movie to just sit back and enjoy, I recommend this movie.

DVD

The DVD of Robin-B-Hood is a Two-Disc Ultimate Edition and is presented in Widescreen, enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The movie comes with Cantonese Dolby 5.1 Cantonese DTS and English Dolby 5.1 with English and Spanish Subtitles. The Features to this two disc includes:

• Feature Commentary by Director Benny Chan.
• Crashing the Hood: A Featurette With Star and Action Director Jackie Chan.
• The Hand That Mocks The Cradle: An Interview with Director Benny Chan.
• Baby-Boomer: An Interview With Co-Star Conroy Chan.
• Playtime for Adults: On The Set Of Robin-B-Hood.
• Robin-B-Hood: An Original Making Of.
• Trailer Gallery.

Ever since I have know about Rob-B-Hood and have the duo of both Jackie Chan and Yuen Baio I couldn't wait to get this one on DVD. When this movie first came out on DVD I was going to straight away by it over seas, but something inside told me to hold out and wait. And here it is Rob-B-Hood has come to America, and i must say it a pretty solid collection of feature on this two disc collection. The Interview with Jackie Chan is 39 minutes and 04 seconds long, for me it was fun to watch hear Jackie's thoughts on how they got Rob-B-Hood made. The rest of the feature are also great for this DVD. I would Strongly consider this DVD as a Buy.

MOVIE: Juno

Juno (Ellen Page) is at the local store check a pregnancy test and then out pops the plus sign. Juno;s having a child. And she is still in high school. When she decides that she can't have an abortion, her friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) suggests looking through the penny savers, that they have couples seeking spawn. When she finally picks the one perfect couple, the couple is played by Jennifer Garner who is Vanessa Loring and Jason Bateman who plays Mark Loring, she decided to give the baby to them. First she has to tell her parents, Mac MacGuff who is played by J.K. Simmons and Bren MacGuff who is played by Allison Janney. The parents are totally shock to find out that their daughter is pregnant they start to try to help her through this process. Juno's father and herself go to meet the family that Juno is going to give the baby too they seem like a perfect happy family.

Over the couple of the trimesters we start to see (of course) Juno getting bigger, but also that that is happy family might not seem so perfect and more. Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) tries help out with Juno towards the end. Everything comes down to the delivery of the baby.

For about the first quarter of the movie I was really hating this movie. With the use of trying to be too clever with the dialogue (trying to be too funny, i thought).

Soon after they got all that stuff out of the way and bring in some of the supporting characters is when the movie goes over and gets better. Juno works when it not trying to be clever.

Around there is a lot of buzz about Ellen Page getting nominated but, for me I thought she was just OK while the supporting cast like J.K Simmons, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner etc. did a great job on screen. Once when we got into the movie it got really better. I was getting more and more interested with the plot and that is why I like this movie. Its funny has good characters, and a great story.

Another part of the movie that really got me was the soundtrack, I thought that the soundtrack for Juno it had great music throughout the movie, it had a sort of the feel like what Wes Anderson puts in his movies, really good stuff. One thing that I was fond of was the opening sequence which is an animation of Juno (Ellen Page) walking to the store, it was really cool. Overall After the first part of the movie I didn't like but after that I really enjoyed this, I Strongly Recommend the movie Juno.

DVD: Once

Glen Hansard plays A Guy in the movie Once. It opens with the Guy out in a busy street playing his guitar and singing songs. A young man comes walking and just pacing around him as he sings. From here, we as a audience don't know what going to happen. After telling the young man to F**k off the young man grabs his guitar case with all of the money in it. Here we see a chase which is quite hilarious. Later during a song (that he wrote) the Guy sings at night he meets a Girl played by Marketa Irglova right off the bat they hit it off and when the Girl bring her Hover to the Guy, because he is a hover Fixer Guy, they go to a music shop and she plays piano for him. From here both of them play and sing another song the Guy wrote and a couple of days later both of them get to know one another and the Guy decides that the two of them and another group of musicians should go and rent out a sound studio and record a group of there songs before the Guy goes back to London. The movie has a very fitting end that makes anyone feel good.

From the very first scene this movie had hooked me in. They movie has a great look and feel to it and it doesn't need to be really over the top like some of the early musicals. Once is something that I'll always recommend. The song of One is so good and can't describe them, I honestly went out after I watched One and bought the Soundtrack, something I haven't done for any movie for a long time. They are just great to listen to. The story wasn't that big it didn't need anything fancy, it just let the great two character just do there thing and really lightened up the screen. Once is a great movie I can stress that anymore, it has anything you could ever want in a movie: comedy, great music, lovable characters, and a great look to it. I Strongly Recommend Once.

DVD

The DVD of Once is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen and is in Dobly Stereo, while it has English, Spanish and French subtitles. The extras on the DVD are:

• Music & Film commentary by Writer/Director John Carbey and Actors/Musicians Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova.
• Making of a Modern Day Musical Featurette.
• More Guy, More Girl Featurette.
• Broken Hearted Hoover Fizer Sucker Guy Webisode (Animated).

The Commentary on the DVD was good I thought the three of them did an OK job, but if I had to choose the best I would have to pick the times when the three where talking about the track being more interesting. I also liked the Making Of/Behind-the Scenes was a good addition, and the other More Guy, More Girl was too a good extra. Another feature is that you can download the song " Falling Slowly" from a DVD-ROM (don't see these anymore that much) was a good addition too. Everything for me worked great on this DVD and I'll be defiantly watching this movie more and more in the future. Much like the movie I Strongly Recommend this DVD.

MOVIE: I Am Legend

Will Smith is the last man on Earth.

The reason of Robert Neville's (Will Smith) being the last person on earth is because a couple of years before a woman Dr. Alice Krippin (played by the wonderful Emma Thompson) has found the cure for cancer. The cure becomes a virus and has started to turn some infected people into, sort of zombie type of monsters, and it kills or infects 99% of the population. Neville is the last healthily survivor because his blood can't be infect by this virus. The only person, or animal that keeps him from losing his mind his his German Shepherd Sam. During the day, Neville roams the empty streets of New York chasing a pack of deers for food in his red mustang and waiting at the Pier waiting for survivors after he broadcasts a message to anyone that they are not alone. When the sun goes down that's his when things get scary. The people, if we can still call them that, that are still alive but just infect they roam the streets because the sun hurts there skin and only at night can they hunt. During One night Neville is out trying to kill has much of the infect has he can and almost dies, but is saved at the last minute by a Woman (Alice Braga) and her son. Neville finds out that that their are people out there. But something goes wrong and the monster finds out where the three are and set a large attack there trying to kill them.

With I Am Legend we see that Will Smith can for sure lead a one man show. As the last survivor left in New York, Robert Neville (played by Will Smith) is the one trying to find the cure. The story circles around a cure that was suppose to cure cancer as now back fired and now makes the ones who where injected, infected. Over the course of the film we find out the back story of Robert Neville and his family on the day of the evacuation of New York. Then we go through a wild ride of great scenery and sound that makes you on the edge of your seat. It makes us care about the characters which every film should do. While I have more to say good about this movie it does at times seem like it is dragging on and seem boring. Other that that I really enjoyed this film. I would recommend, I Am Legend.

MOVIE: Enchanted

As Enchanted starts we see Giselle (Amy Adams) as her 2-D animation self. We open with Giselle looking for her true love hoping that one day she will find that one. Just as it happens during Giselle singing, Prince Edwards (James Marsden) who is outside of his castle troll-hunting hears her voice and knows that they are meant to be together. One person who doesn't approve of this matching is the Queen of the kingdom, Queen Narissa (who is played by Susan Sarandon) and she will do anything to ensure that her kingdoms stays to be her kingdom. So the plan she plays on Giselle is a treacherous one, she sends Giselle down into what seems like a never ending well. This well that Giselle has fallen into leads to the one place no one who expect, the real world New York. When she arrive she sticks out like a sore thumb and nothing seem to be like the life she had back home. Giselle tries everything she can to get back. While up on a billboard she meets Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter. They try to help her and giving her a place to stay for the night, not something Robert had wanted to do. From here Giselle gets help cleaning the house from the local animal populace inhabiting New York City, and later singing the song, "That's How You Know" and getting everyone around her to join in a large musical number in Central Park. All awhile Prince Edward has come to New York to find Giselle with the help of a Squirrel. Everything leads up to a confrontation of the two that leads to them going to a ballroom party.

From right off the git go I wanted to see Enchanted. I remember sitting in the theater when I first saw the trailer for this movie and as I was walking out I said that I think this will be a good movie. I was right.

Now I am a huge fan of old classic Disney films like Jungle Book, Dumbo, Snow White and all other 2D animation film, but as new technology came into play with studios like Pixar no one really do not make 2D films anymore. Which with Enchanted we get to see the beginning of the story in 2D before we transfer into the real world. I thought those scenes where nicely done. the animation was sharp and fresh. Then we move into real time and that were it gets good. We see all the cliche Disney film actions like a song and dance scenes and a group of animals helping out with house choirs, here they make fun of those.

All the acting was fun, my favorite character was the squirrel his scene were funny. Everything leads to a somewhat in my opinion of a cheesy Climax with the villain's(Susan Sarandon) monster dragon. Other than that I thought the movie was a fun couple hours to spend. I have some good fun. I would recommend this movie.

DVD: The Simpson Movie

Its has took a very, very long time to get the hit television show, the Simpson to the big screen. But its finally here. The Simpson Movie seems to start off good with a beginning showing a Itchy and Scratch clip, then we go to a Green Day concert and get a good Titanic reference. The story seems to take a view on the Environment issue. Springfield is falling apart and Lisa take responsibility to clean it up, they get the town to a good place again. Only to find out Homer ruined the town by dumping a large tank of pig feces, yes feces, in to the lake. From there the EPA leader ask President Arnold Schwarzenegger, yes he become president I guess, to pick a solution to deal with Springfield. The President pick number three solution the EPA leader ask if he's sure and that he should read them, he replies with a funny line: "I was elected to lead, not to read." The solution was to confine Springfield in a large dome. When the Simpson family escapes from a large mob who was trying to kill Homer for putting them in this situation. they wait awhile trying to live in there new home in Alaska but then go on a quest to save their town.

While I have always liked The Simpson's, and have been waiting for a Simpson's Movie for the longest time. I must say I was sort of disappointed with this movie. At times I was laughing, but for me that was to far in between. For it seem that the writers did re-use some plot ideas/stories and just stick them in the movie. That normally doesn't just work. The acting, much like in the television is always superb. Another thing that I was disappointed in was that the sub-characters, didn't get that much screen time has I would have wished. ***One last pet peeve that I had was I wish that the movie had The Simpson's opening just like the show, but that's just me.*** I would recommend The Simpson Movie.

DVD

The Simpson's Movie is presented in anamorphic 2.40:1 widescreen with English 5.1 Dolby Digital along with English, French and Spanish subtitles. The Features include:

• Commentary.
• Directors Commentary.
• Deleted Scenes and A Slight Alternate Ending.
• Special Stuff.
• A Lot Of Trailers.

The DVD was also just OK, it has a decent amount of features to keep anyone content. While I would have like to see the whole making of the movie in maybe a "Making Of" featurette. Overall I thought with movie being just OK for me I really didn't care that much for the features. I would say that this DVD is just a rent.

DVD: The Last Legion

The Last Legion is the story that tells the of the beginning of King Arthur's famous sword Excalibur. Young Romulus has been sworn in as now the leader of Rome. During the night a man Goth who is a general of Rome named Odoacer decides to take his soldier and invade the city to take young Romulus alive, Romulus' royal guard Aurelius (Colin Firth) is taking out of the fight early and when he wakes he finds that the kid has been taken. Aurelius and a group of his closest men, and a warrior Mira (played by Aishwarya Rai) set out to rescue the kid who now is imprisoned at Capri along with the young boys mentor Ambrosinus (Ben Kingsley) they escape with the help of Aurelius with the sword Excalibur. The group flees to Britain home of Ambrosinus. There they look to find the Ninth legion only to find Hadrian's Wall, the Ninth legion deserted the wall. The group learns that the Ninth legion become peasents and live at a local town. Everything leads to a final battle at Hadrian's Wall where they fight Vortgyn, who says he's the ruler of Britain and has been attacking the Ninth legion trying to take over the land that Rome has taken from him.

I like stories and movies about the Roman times when Rome was still standing, and other movies with sword fighting and epic battle scenes. I liked King Arthur, which touched on a little bit of Roman and had great action and decent acting. I love the TV show "Rome." But this, The Last Legion was at first entertaining but has the story when on and was nearing the end I just wasn't caring anymore. If you truly want to watch a great well done story, please go out and buy the 2 seasons of Rome because The Last Legion has nothing.

The beginning did have the feel of that it was going to come out good, but then it fell way down. During the fight scenes I thought they over-used the editing tool way to much. All the fight scenes I'm talking about are the fights with Aishwarya Rai in them, while watching them they where constantly cutting and I'm a fun of just show long takes of fight you don't need to cut that much. A couple cuts is OK. Overall I thought it average, It wasn't good but it also wasn't the worst movie of all time. Overall I would have to say skip this movie.

DVD

The Last Legion is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 English Dolby Digital and has English and Spanish subtitles. The features are as followed:

• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary.
• Fight Scene Cheography.
• From the Director's Sketchbook: A Storyboard-to-Film Comparison.
• Making of The Last Legion.
• Theatrical Trailer.

Really the only feature I really liked on this DVD was the Fight Scene Choreography, really because I got to see most all the fight scenes with having it cut every other second. Everything else I really didn't care for much because I didn't really care for the movie. I would say skip the DVD.

DVD: National Treasure (SE)

When a young Benjamin Gate first learns about the history of his family dating way back in 1832. That one of the last signers of the Declaration of Independence told told Gates about a treasure that has been around for a long time. Before that signer died he told the Gates family member the last secrets about that treasure to him. Since then the Gates family has been in search for that treasure only to find more clues. Years later as Benjamin Gates grows up (Nicolas Cage) he too is on the hunt to find that treasure. It has lead them to the Antarctic where Gates, his financial partner Ian (Sean Bean) and Ben's sidekick Riley (Justin Bartha) are there they find a lost ship called the Charlotte where they find another clue telling them that there's a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Ian and Ben have two didn't ideas what to do next and the two have a falling out.

While back in the States Ben and Riley try to figure out how to stop Ian from getting the Declaration, there guess is by stealing it themselves. Once they get the Declaration they are joined by Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) and soon after that Patrick Gate (Jon Voight) who is Ben's father.

Even more clues take them to Philadelphia to Washington in search for this treasure, on this wonderful thrill ride.

I've always been a huge History buff and any movie that containing anything about our nations past or anything about history I'm all for. National Treasure for me was a huge surprise. I was think that this movie is going to do really bad because I really don't like Nicolas Cage, just have never like the way he acts in movies, but I must say I was surprised I thought he was really good and funny at times. The one person I really like was The sidekick Riley (played by Justin Bartha) he I thought was great all his remark are hilarious and great.

The story is fun and good, my favorite part in the movie would have to be the stealing of the Declaration, it was really intense, especially in the car chase. The rest of the acting does a solid job with a good acting by Jon Voight and Harvey Keitel. The whole movie had for me the feel of a Indiana Jones movie great action, good story and in the end it all fun. Overall I really liked this movie and I Recommend National Treasure.

DVD

National Treasure Special Edition comes with two disc loaded with features and is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen, with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and French and Spanish subtitles. The features include:

• Alternate Ending with Optional Director's Commentary.
• Deleted Scenes With Optional Director's Commentary.
• Opening Scene Animatic With Optional Director's Commentary.
• Four Featurette Gem:
  "National Treasure On Location"
  "The Knights Templar"
  "Treasure Hunters Revealed"
  "Riley's Decode This!" - Plus 3 Puzzle Challenges
• Additional Deleted Scenes With Intros by Director John Turteltaub.
• A Treasure Trove of Featurettes:
  "Ciphers, Codes & Codebreakers"
  "On The Set Of American History"
  "To Steal A National Treasure"
  "Exploding Charlotte"

Since I really liked this movie, I was really interested with everything that was on the DVD. The one thing that really caught my eye was the featurette of "Ciphers, Codes & Codebreakers" I was really interested with everything they had to say about the different types of different types of Codes. The one problem I thought it was too short I was really want to learn more after the feature was done. Overall this is a great DVD packed with features. I would recommend this as a Buy.

DVD: Severance

Some workers from a weapons company of Palisade Defence are heading up into the Eupoean mountians to fort up in a local cabin to work on there team building skills. As they make there way up the bus that they are riding on breaks down (of course). They decided to walk up to the cabin. When they reach the cabin it seem that they have been taken to the worst cabin anyone could have made. As they try to make the best of the sistuation they relize that that are now upcoming victums of a war crazed killer going to try to kill the whole gang.

While I was watching Severance right off from the beginning I started to enjoy this movie, I thought it was really funny exspectally most of Danny Dyer who played Steve scenes. The dialouge in Severance is really smart funny and whitty, which is always a good thing. But while they get attacked by the killer for me it started to get a little bored with it, it started to feel like most of all the other killer movie like Hostel, Saw, etc. Yet overall this movie kept my attenion (barely), and I enjoyed some of the deaths and laughed at some of the jokes. My final vertict would be to Skip and maybe just wait for DVD.

DVD

The movie Severance is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen with English 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital. With also Spanish Subtitles. The features include:

• Commentary with Director, Cast and Crew.
• The Making Of Severance.
• Being Danny Dyer Featurette.
• Deleted Scenes and Outtakes.
• No So Special Effects Featurette.
• The Genesis of Severance & Behind the Scenes.
• Danny Fight Scene Training.
• Alternate Ending Storyboard and much more.

The DVD of Severance is a solid piece of work while the movie alone is a little below expectations the DVD has a good amount of extras but sometimes that can't change the movie so with that the movie alone weight down I would have to say that the movie or DVD of Severence is only a Rent for me.

DVD: Balls Of Fury

When Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) loses his cool and his father to the game of ping pong, he never wants to play another match for the rest of his life. A couple of years later, he is approach by a CIA agent (George Lopez) who wants his help to infiltrate Fengs organization, while the only way in is through is to get into an invitation that only goes to the best ping pong players. While Randy has been out of the game hes been rusty so they go to someone who can help him come back to the game of ping pong he is Master Wong. There Randy meets Maggie Wong (Maggie Q). As Randy gets better he's accepted into the tournament. There he meet the one man who beat him those year before where he lost at the games, Karl Wolfschtagg (who is played by writer Thomas Lennon). We also meet Feng who is played by a funny Christopher Walken.

When I first saw Ball Of Fury in the movie theater, I would have to have had one of my worst experiences of my life. First the movie's projection only was way to big for the screen and it took them about a half an hour to fix it and when they did it still overlapped. The sound was horrible. And to top it all off there were two people who were very obnoxious, during the whole thing. But back to the review, sorry for that rant.

Aside from that i enjoyed for the most part of the movie, the whole cast I thought where good in their own right, and very funny was Feng (Christopher Walken) who has the Ping Pong games at his hide out, he has this small nosies and face he makes which is great. I have always been a fan of the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, and Balls of Fury were made by the same people and they do a great job and I really enjoyed the movie for what it was. While I do like this movie I can't recommend this movie because I know this will only appeal to a select view, As much I want people to see this I would say skip and just wait for DVD.

DVD

Balls Of Fury is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with English 5.1 Dolby Digital. Along with English, Spanish and French subtitles. The features are as followed:

• Deleted Scenes.
• Alternate Ending.
• Balls Out: The Making of Balls Of Fury.
• Under the Balls: The Life of a Ball Wranger.

As watching Balls Of Fury in the comfort of my my good o' room I have to say I enjoyed Ball of Fury a lot more than I didn't last time when I saw it at the theaters. One thing that I really like was the "Making of" feature it made me look at the film from a new perspective, that Balls Of Fury is really a kung fu movie without fight scenes and they are are exchanged with ping pong matches. One issue I had with this DVD was that their was no Commentary, something I really like on DVDs. Rather disappointed with the DVD but not the movie, I really liked this one. I would say this is a Rent.

DVD: Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

Our favorite students of Hogwarts comes back to their Fifth year. The One-Who-Must-Be-Named has returned and Harry Potter as seen it first hand, but no one around Harry believes him because of the Ministry of Magic and the Daily Profit, the wizarding newspaper, has been denouncing Harry and Doubledore's claims of the return of Voldemort. While at school it has been clear that the Ministry has forced their way into the ruling of Hogwarts by placing one of their own, Delores Umbridge (who is played by Imelda Staunton), and are not teaching the student any magic. So Harry has decided to teach the other students himself (they name the group Dombledore's Army). Which everything leads up to a huge battle between Voldemort and his Deatheaters versus Harry and his friends.

The Harry Potter and The Order off the Phoenix is my second favorite of the book series, with the Prisoner of Azkaban being first. With the movie version, I would have to say I enjoyed it more than some of the previous in the series, it being the shortest in the series it did leave some plot elements of the book out. One thing in example was I remembered in the book was that Professor McGonagall and Umbridge had a couple of arguments, while in the movie they touched briefly on that. Another was Firenze, I really liked to have seen him back in this one but they didn't add him. Another scene was at Sirus home, Grimmauld Place, where we encounter boggarts and we see the Locket which will be important later in the series. One last part I was really looking forward to was the scene in St. Mungo's where we see Gilderoy Lockhart who is in Chamber Of Secrets, and we meet Neville's Parents. But above all that I thought the movie touched down on most of the main plot points from the book. Which is always a great thing.

As the acting in most of all the Harry Potter it is superb. The cast of this series is grade A. Some great actors come aboard to help make these movies great. The two newest additions to the cast was Imelda Staunton who plays Umbridge the Ministry's arm at Hogwarts, for me I thought that was straight on casting she played the character Umbridge great. Another addition was Evanna Lynch who plays Luna Lovegood, and that too was great I really liked her during the movie. The returning cast does a great job too, like aways.

One last thing I really liked was the sets of the movie, the Hogwarts grounds have always been amazing to look at and its a thrill to see, but for me the one new sets that looked amazing was the Ministry of Magic. When we first drop down into the Ministry and see all the people crowding in, it is a glorious sight, showing the sheer scope of the Ministry. Even towards the end when the group was in the Department of Mysteries, the whole place looked amazing I really like the use of the black and dark blue colors.

The Overall thought of Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix was that I enjoyed the movie, while yes they sure did cut a lot out of one of the longest book of the series (I still wished the movie was longer), but I thought it was still entertaining and that what its all about. But if I to pick between the movie or the book, I would go with the book any day of the week. Overall I highly recommend Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix.

DVD

Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix comes in two discs and is presented in 2.40:1 widescreen, with 5.1 Dolby Digital sound and English, French, Spanish subtitles. The Special Features include:

• Additional Scenes.
• The Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter - Explore all of the Movies in the Series for Clues of Harry's True Destiny.
• Trailing Tonks: Natalia Tena (aka Nymphadora Tonks) Leads a Very Personal Set Tour.
• Harry Potter: The Magic of Editing - Director David Yates and Editor Mark Day Shows What a Difference a Good Edit Makes.
• DVD-ROM enhanced features.

The one thing I was disappointed with this DVD is that it does not a commentary track, I love all commentary's on most DVD and I have always been wanting some sort of commentary on any of the Harry Potter DVDs but never had them, there's still hope. Other than that I thought the DVD of the Order of the Phoenix is really well packed. The one extra that really caught my attention and enjoyed was the Trailing Tonks where Natalia Tena (who plays Tonks in the movie) take us through a tour of the sets of Harry Potter. Another extra that had me thing was the The Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter the extra talks about the story and what clues that connect Harry to his past. I found this really entertaining and thought provoking. The whole thing was really entertaining. The other parts of the DVD are also well done. Overall this is a great viewing for anyone. Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix 2-Disc DVD is a Buy.

DVD: Exiled

From the director of some great action films and a great gangster film Election and Election II, Johnny To comes Exiled (Fong Juk). For me this movie does not disappoint.

Two men come to a house looking for a man named Wo(played by Nick Cheung), seconds later two more comes looking for him too. The problem is two are there to kill him while the other are there to protect him. Wo then purposes to the four, one last job what would help his wife and child up before his execution. So the group sets off to pull of the biggest heist they have ever done. Other actors in Exiled are Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Roy Cheung, Josie Ho, Suet Lam and Simon Yam as Boss Fay.

From the opening scenes of Exiled is tense to say the least, All Four show up and sit and wait for Wo to appear. Watching them wait for him you don't know who's here to do what? Who here to kill him and who's here to protect him? So you automatically think the for are going to start fighting guns blazing. Nothing happens. Wo now shows up and the two of the assassins, one from each group, follow him into his house where Wo's wife and child are staying. As the three of them are standing in a empty room, with the wife and child in the other room, each person puts only five bullets in their guns. Then all hell breaks loose.

That was just the beginning and from there the action does not stop, with more all out gun blazing all out war. The soundtrack is very well placed, I just loved the music during scenes where we knew the group was about to get into a gun fight and the music leads the audience into those scenes well. Not one actor stole the show away from anyone, everyone did their job well. While I am a big fan of Anthony Wong, I though he was good through this movie. No one really shined.

Overall, if you want to see a movie with really good action and a story that will grab you and not let go then Exiled (Fong Juk) is the movie to see.

DVD

Magnolia brings Exiled to DVD. While the extras could have been a little bit more on the DVD it still does a good job, but the movie alone can make this a buy cause of the great film. The video is presented in 2:35:1 widescreen and the picture looks good. The audio in present in great 5.1 Cantonese sound and with both 5.1 and 2.0 English dubbed tracks. The features include:

• The Making of Exiled
• Behind the Scenes
• HDnet Films Sneak Peek: "Redacted"

The Making of Exiled is around a twelve minute (12:00) featurette that has some insight into the characters of the movie from interviews from the Director Johnny To and most of the cast members which is interesting to watch.

The Behind the Scenes feature is a six minute (6:19) look at the cast acting out the scenes and just having fun. From what it is, its fun to watch, nothing that can give you that much from the DVD but good non-the-less.

The HDnet Films sneak peek is a almost a five minute (4:55) look at the film Redacted with the film Director Brain D Palma. The Sneak Peek for me I really didn't care for I am not a person who wants to go see the movie Redacted but if someone else is then is is great Sneak Peek to watch.

While the extras on this DVD are good I would have loved to see some international trailer make its way over on this DVD. Still with the movie and the extras all on this DVD make it a good perchance. I Highly Recommend this DVD.