DVD: Speak

Speak stars Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Perkins, D.B. Sweeney and Steve Zahn and is Directed by Jessica Sharzer.

Speak is about a young girl Melinda Sordino (played by Kristen Stewart). She is starting high school as a freshman, only problem is that almost every one in school hates her except for a new girl who has just arrived to town a couple of days before, Heather (played by Allison Siko) who befriends her while on the first day of school riding on the bus. Throughout the first day of school has she just tries to make it through the day, she is constantly being called a "squealer" by everyone she walks passed, because of one night where her and her friends are at a party and then she called the cops. During the school year the two people that help her out get through this year they are another student David Petrakis (Michael Angarano), who she has as a lab partner, and her art teacher Mr. Freeman (played by Steve Zahn). She constantly recalls the traumatic night of the party (the one where she called the cops), because on that night she was raped by Andy Evans (Eric Lively), another student at her school.

Speak would be a movie that I would not mostly come across but I came across this movie just looking around and I thought this actually might check into. I was surprised because I actually enjoyed this movie I thought it good. I really like the cast of the movie Elizabeth Perkins who I like in the Showtime series Weeds, Steve Zahn I liked his performance in That Thing You Do! and I've seen some movies with Kristen Stewart in them like Panic Room and Cold Creek Manor, Zathura and The Messengers. In Speak I thought everyone does a good job throughout. especially Kristen Stewart.

I have not read the novel (which is of the same named) and was written by Laurie Halse Anderson in 1999, but I read that the author was their on set and she was very pleased with what was going on. So that must be a good thing right.

Overall, I thought Speak was a really engaging movie which I thought was really good. I think this really shows Kristen Stewart as a good actress and does a great job at acting, I bet she will get a lot more roles after this. I Recommend Speak.

DVD

The DVD of Speak has as features, Commentary by both the Director Jessica Sharzer and Author Laurie Halse Anderson, Behind-The-Scenes, Penguin Books "Study Guide" and Cast Filmographies.

I thought that the DVD good. The Commentary I though was OK. The behind the scenes featurettes was decent and a good watch. The filmographies were and are in my mine opinion are NOT special features, this along with interactive menus are poor excuses of special features. My overall thought of the DVD would be a so-so, but I thought the movie alone was good, so I would recommend this DVD as a Buy because of how good the movie was.

DVD: Bandidas

Bandidas, is a film setting around the western days, in Mexico. Bandidas as the two greatest Spanish actresses of this century.

The story of Bandidas, is a story about the American country is trying to make room for the railroad expanding from the United States all the way into Mexico, the antagonist Dwight Yoakam who plays Tyler Jackson and he is buying up all the land for the United States. During this time, Jackson and his men take of life of Salma Hayek character Sara Sandoval father and critically wound Penélope Cruz character Maria Alvarez father both woman team up and begin to take back from Tyler Jackson, along the way the run into Quentin Cooke who is here to find out who killed Sara Sandoval's father.

Let me start off from saying the film the idea of this film is a great idea, bringing these two great actresses to star in a western is a great film idea. Bandidas from the credits seems to a a big blockbuster, with on of my favorite writers in the industry Luc Besson who is known for the works of Leon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita, Fifth Element and the Transporter and its sequel he is both Writing and Producing Bandidas. Along with that we have both Penélope Cruz and Salma Hayek who are great actresses and in my opinion have great chemistry on screen. The one part that I was dissappointed about was Steve Zahn's character Quentin Cooke, I thought that his part in the film was not necessary needed I felt that you could have had more character building parts with Penélope and Salma, but that's just my opinion.

The story and the feel of Bandidas seem to be a lot like the Jackie Chan and Owen Weilson's Shanghai Noon where its based in the same time period and the action seems to be very good, but Bandidas doesn't have the great martial artist Jackie Chan to make great fight scenes that are in Shanghai Noon yet overall the movie does good on the action part.

Overall Bandidas, I had fun watching. If you want to watch a film and relax in the process Bandidas as it. It contain good action, the writing in the film is mediocre, but everything balances each other out and I would recommend this film anytime. Its a thumbs up.

DVD

Specs.

Bandidas comes in both Widescreen and Full-screen formats, so the video differs on which way you watch the film in. The audio comes in English 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital Surround Sound, and come with both English and Spanish subtitles and is 92 minutes.

Special Features Include:

• Audio Commentary by Selma Hayek and Penélope Cruz
• A Burning up the set with Selma and Penélope featurette

This DVD although doesn't contain that much I would have loved to see more than this for the film. I think the commentary is decent, and the featurette is a good ten minute feature but it nothing that should change anything. The DVD is nothing that special, but I would think that if you like either of these two actresses or is a big fan of westerns then this is a buy, other that that its a rent at least.