Reviews (DVD Only) – Page 2 – Public Intelligence Blog

Riveting, Inspiring, Absorbing, Provoking, Just a GREAT All-Around Gift, November 7, 2008

Tadanobu Asano

I was going to multi-task as a I usually do, watching a DVD while reading a book (Constitutional History of Secession)–that idea lasted less than 30 seconds.

From the very first visual this movie grabbed me. This was so good that I spent a third of the time standing up in front of the TV (in part to read the subtitles but in part because this is what I do when a movie really grabs me intellectually and spiritually), and a third leaning forward ffrom the sofa in the fireplace room.

The movie ENDS with battle scenes. The build-up is spectacular on all fronts–cinematography, casting, script, acting–there is not a single bit of this movie that is not five-star wake up and smell the roses GREAT.

I am sitting here thinking of what else to say, just shaking my head. At every level, from personal loyalty to personal strength to family ties to blood brothers to brave in battle to the nuances of corruption, I had a RIVETING good time with this movie. I was ABSORBED.

A few other DVDs I admire as much as this one, but each a slightly different kind of absorbtion. This movie (above) is epic in every sense of the word. The first DVD, is an alterantive view of Tibet which is on the other side of China from Mongolia, but in my view equally important as Mongolia, both autonomous cultural zones.
Tibet – Cry of the Snow Lion
Gladiator (Widescreen Edition)
Henry V
Braveheart (Special Collector's Edition)
Lawrence of Arabia (Collector's Edition, 2 discs) – DVD
The Last Samurai (Full Screen Edition)
We Were Soldiers (Widescreen Edition)
The Snow Walker
A Man Called Horse

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review:DVD: Behind Every Terrorist There Is a Bush

5 Star, Impeachment & Treason, Reviews (DVD Only)

Superior Intellect, Comedy, Probing, Provocative, Fun, June 6, 2009

Ken Jenkins

This DVD costs $20 at PeaceProject.com, and less if you buy more copies, which I recommend. This is a superior fun consciousness raising device and a wonderful gift. It can also be used to provoke the mentally challenged.

I received my copy from Carol Brouillet when we were together at an event, and watched it this morning. It is a mix of comedy, poetry, and serious presentations, e.g. by Webster Tarpley, Ian Woods, and others, the latter presenting 27 9/11 anomalies, this bit ALONE is worth the price of the DVD.

I cannot emphasize too greatly the importance and seriousness of this DVD. Everyone associated with it is intelligent, non-violent, and attentive. This is a call to arms–pots and pans and voices, not guns–throughout this DVD, the truth is recognized as the moral force that it is.

PLEASE buy this DVD and share it with others. Taking responsibility for what we have allowed to be done “in our name” and with our complicit silence in the streets is the only way we can partially overcome the shame, the dishonor, of letting a nakedly amoral vice president and a village idiot lead the world to trillion dollar chaos.

For those attracted to this line of inquiry, I have created an annotated bibliography with hot links to over 500 non-fictions books and some DVDs that more or less are a citizen's primer on what is wrong with our out of control federal government, and what need to know to fix it. See the comment for the URL.

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review DVD: Traitor

5 Star, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Reviews (DVD Only)

Jeffrey Nachmanoff Hits It Out of the Park, June 20, 2009

Don Cheadle

As a former spy and leading critic of the $65 billion a year spent by the secret world, I normally limit my DVD intake to hotels and airplanes, but this one attracted my attention and deservedly so.

This is one of a tiny handful of decent depictions of the spy world, and I want to note that Jeffrey Nachmanoff, a name most will not notice, was also the screen writer for The Day After Tomorrow (Widescreen Edition).

The over-all plot is credible, well-acted, well-filmed, and I was pulled in to give this my undivided attention. The subtleties of inter-agency competition and non-sharing were well integrated.

Bottom line: a top-notch offering all the way around, but I want to single out Nachmanoff for getting it right. He's a talent to watch.

If you are interested in intelligence, I have written several books, all free online as well as for sale here at Amazon, and a great deal of information helpful to any citizen can be found at oss.net.

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review DVD: Gran Torino (Widescreen Edition)

5 Star, Crime (Organized, Transnational), Reviews (DVD Only)

Moving Collage Beyond Karrate Kid and Second Hand Lions, June 20, 2009

Clint Eastwood

I got this movie on a whim, in part because I am tired of seeing Americans turning into either fat blobs or pussies afraid of their own shadow (or worse, self-righteous morons who really think government is the answer to everything.

Eastwood might hate the comparison, but this is a collage that goes well beyond The Karate Kid meets Secondhand Lions (New Line Platinum Series).

It most assuredly is right up there with Million Dollar Baby (Full Screen Edition) and Absolute Power.

It's hard to sum up this movie so I will say just three things:

1. He weaves every possible American hard-ass self-made man image in as gracefully as it could be done.

2. He does for the hill people of Viet-Nam what Bride and Prejudice did for India but without the music, love, and dance.

3. The ending is spectacular–Eastwood's voice in the background, slow singing against a visual as the Gran Torino drives toward the future with its special passenger who inherited from the master. For this alone I would rent or buy the DVD.

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review DVD: Morning Light

4 Star, Reviews (DVD Only), Sailing

Worthy of time and money, could have been better, June 25, 2009

The Amazon review above stinks. Ignore it.

I would never, ever, have known of Morning Light if I had not been the only other person in an advanced meterology class in Seattle under master weatherman Lee Chesneau. The skipper Jeremy, the navigator Piet, and the back-up navigator Chris, and I, spent a full week together. I ended up feeding them and the instructor a lot of sushi.

These three were a cut above the norm, but one of the things I learned from being with them was just how normal the crew was, and the fact that they were giving up a working position in order to carry a camaraman–in other words, they came in second to a world-class professional crew even though handicapped by one cargo camaraman. I was surprised not to see this mentioned in the film.

As for the film, it had me on the edge of my seat and as mundane as some may find aspects of the film–not exactly a James Bond movie, and certainly not a drama with hotties such as Wind–for anyone who loves sailing, this is absolutely a great film to view alone or as an excuse for a gathering of like-minded folk.

My biggest disappointment in the film is the lack of detail on training–absent my comment and my direct experience, no one would know they got advanced meterology training, or that their initial southern pick went against everything they were taught (the wind rotates counter-clockwise). Nor did I learn anything of other training.

From talking to them I learned far more about the training and the details of equipping the boat, e.g. they were each allowed one small sack of personal items, and as the boat was put together there were furious arguments about the exact weight of the navigation light at the top of the mast, and the weight of the wire from the light to the power source. That is the kind of stuff I was hoping would be in this film.

So a bit disappointing, but a superb contribution and one that I would recommend as a gift to any aspiring sailor from high school onwards.

Other DVDs in my sailing library (see my Amazon List):
Volvo Round the World Race: The SEB Stopover Reports.
Racing To Win with Gary Jobson

2009/06/282009/12/04

Review DVD – From Hell

5 Star, Crime (Organized, Transnational), Reviews (DVD Only)

Johnny Depp a Brand Name for Me, June 28, 2009

No one needs my review of this superb film, this annotation is just a marker for those who follow my generally non-fiction reading and viewing.

Johnny Depp has become an icon for me, a brand name. One of my teenagers brought this home and I put it on background while doing paperwork, but the TV is above my desktop and I watched every single minute, stopping as necessary when leaving the room.

I admire the reviewer that has researched Jack the Ripper more deeply and tells us that we have been let off the worst of the worst. That's fine by me. Between Johnny Depp's performance, the other stars in the cast, the over-all screenplay and the period depiction, this was simply a fine offering.

I might offer that Heather Graham shows great promise, brining to mind such stars as Jodie Foster and Julianne Moore.

I'd like to see more reviewers use the “Insert a Product Link” that Amazon offers, instead of just typing out the name of a book or DVD.

Here are some examples:
The Libertine
Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man's Chest (Widescreen Edition)
The Complete History of Jack the Ripper
A Study in Red: The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper
The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Companion: An Illustrated Encyclopedia

2009/06/042009/12/04

Review DVD: Humanity Ascending Series Part 1: OUR STORY featuring Barbara Marx Hubbard

5 Star, Consciousness & Social IQ, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Reviews (DVD Only)

Common Sense and Clear Vision at its Very Best, June 4, 2009

Barbara Marx Hubbard

I met Barbara Marx Hubbard recently, and after reading and reviewing her book Conscious Evolution: Awakening Our Social Potential bouight everything else she has done and am working my way through it.

This DVD is truly great in multiple ways, including the imagery provided as the changing backdrop for the speaker, her own presentation, and the selection of very short clips interspersed throughout. This is not a very long DVD, but it is priceless and *very* easy to watch. Certainly something to share with friends before or after a dinner.

Three key points that stayed with me:

1) Women are coming into the own again. The top down patriarchal control model is not working. The matriarchal nurturing and circle mode is needed. Many do not know that in the beginning of human society we mere matriarchal because birth was a miracle and the blood connection from mother to child was indisputable.

2) The psycho-social development of individuals is vastly outpacing the much slower “organizational” societal evolution, and this gives rise to both conflict and alternative solutions that are still on the fringes.

3) Our values and minds have not evolved fast enough to control and contain the weapons and other capabilities we have been building, and this is a major threat. Today, some years after this was made, we face super-empowered individual with off-the-shelf access to nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction including explosives and poisons that can be manufactured at home.

The speaker was the “alternative” vice presidential candidate to Geraldine Ferraro at the Democratic Convention in 1984, and that in itself is a remarkable contrast: Ferraro was the “man's woman” seeking to compete on male terms; Hubbard was the woman's woman, seeking to compete on alternative terms.

All fascinating. I hope millions more hear her message, there is not a single negative note, all positive, all common sense, all vital.

Other books that I recommend:
Human Scale
Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
Imagine: What America Could be in the 21st century
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents (Hardcover))

Category: Reviews (DVD Only)

Review DVD: Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan

Review:DVD: Behind Every Terrorist There Is a Bush

Review DVD: Traitor

Review DVD: Gran Torino (Widescreen Edition)

Review DVD: Morning Light

Review DVD – From Hell

Review DVD: Humanity Ascending Series Part 1: OUR STORY featuring Barbara Marx Hubbard