After a distastrous first date for caterer Holly (Katherine Heigl) and network sports director Messer (Josh Duhamel), all they have is common is a dislike for each other and their love for their goddaughter Sophie. But when they suddenly become all Sophie has in this world, Holly and Messer must set their differences aside. Juggling careers and social calendars, they’ll have to find common ground while living under the same roof. Josh Lucas, Christina Hendricks, Hayes MacArthur and Jean Smart co-star in this tart and tender romantic comedy directed by Greg Berlanti (Brothers & Sisters, Everwood).

Duhamel plays Eric, a laid back guy who works for an NBA team – he presses the button to change cameras – has a seemingly unlimited amount of money, and always looks primed for a photo shoot. Heigl plays Holly; a headstrong, but ultimately uptight single woman, one who never has any luck with the guys.

Director Greg Berlanti does give the film a nice cinematic look — helpful in reminding audiences that they are, in fact, not watching a sitcom. Without the film’s loose, flowing cinematography, there would be little else to distinguish the show from any of the half-hour drek that appears on network television’s prime-time line-up.

Katherine Heigl plays essentially the same character she has in every movie she’s appeared in — apparently mistaking the art of developing acting range with going to the salon and getting a new hairstyle. Josh Duhamel does show he’s capable of genuine comic timing and could have a great career ahead of him — if he picks his films more carefully and stops making such cookie cutter features.

Extras:

“A Survival Guide to Instant Parenting” (7:12) interviews cast and crew for their thoughts on the world of raising children, collecting tips on how to deal with kids, discussing the way they instantly change lives. Since most of the cast are comics, there are a lot of failed attempts to make everything funny.

“Katherine Heigl: Becoming the Best Mom Ever” (5:56) celebrates the star power and talents of the actress, with interviews extolling the virtues of her work ethic and charisma. Talk of Heigl’s own foray into parenthood is also covered.

“Josh Duhamel: Triplet Tamer” (5:16) is more about the child stars than the big one, displaying the trust built between the actors as the film was shot.

“Deleted Scenes” (14:42) collects several slivers of character development and parental concern, but the major additions cover Messer’s single man conquests in the house, the addition of a nose-picking character, a cameo by Steve Nash, and video birthday card from the supporting cast.

The Walt Disney Studios proudly announces the addition of BAMBI to its coveted, cutting-edge Blu-ray™ Diamond Collection line-up of Disney’s greatest animated-classics. Released from the Disney vault for a limited time only, BAMBI Diamond Edition features the loveable and adorable wide-eyed fawn and his forest friends in Blu-ray high-definition on March 1, 2011.

As morning light breaks across the meadow, a young deer named Bambi is born and hailed as ‘Prince of the Forest.’ Soon Bambi emerges from the thicket on wobbly legs, much to the delight of his new friends, Thumper, the playful rabbit, and Flower, the bashful yet lovable skunk. But the fun of nibbling on fresh blossoms and frolicking through the woods is only the beginning. Exploring his new world, and guided by the wisdom of Friend Owl,Bambi learns valuable life lessons with every adventure – experiencing the power of friendship, family, and love along the away.

The Diamond Edition debut of BAMBI, Walt’s fifth full-length animated classic, is an endearing tale about a young prince of the forest who learns valuable life-lessons about friendship, love, and the miracle of life. The movie is a must-own coming-of-age story that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has especially packaged with families in mind – providing the ultimate, interactive hi-def home entertainment experience with a newly enhanced digital restoration, enhanced picture and sound, games, activities and more.

Disney’s new “Second Screen” technology, which is being introduced for the very first time on the BAMBI Diamond Edition release, will further transform the at-home movie watching experience by empowering viewers with the ability to engage with film content on multiple media platforms and bring them to life in their own hands at the touch of a button. By simply downloading the new Disney Second Screen App onto an internet-connected computer or iPad™* and synching it to the movie, consumers will instantly be able to dive deeper into the film by engaging with fun interactive elements like animated flipbooks, galleries, photos, trivia and more.

BAMBI was Walt Disney’s fifth animated full-length feature film which released in 1942 during World War II and took approximately five years in the making due to the exquisite artwork and attention to detail of each and every scene, character and figure.  The artwork itself was created by some of the legendary “nine old men,” including Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Marc Davis, Milt Kahl and Eric Larson and in order to achieve the film’s unprecedented level of realism, animators modeled anatomical studies using live animals (including a pair of fawns named Bambi and Faline) and imbued each with a uniquely endearing personality. Bambi’s delightful forest home received the same painstaking attention to detail, as background artists painted hundreds of landscapes based on extensive field research and nature photographs.

Walt Disney broke the longstanding animation tradition by casting child actors in the roles of Bambi’s young animals, including Bobby Stewart as Baby Bambi, Donnie Dunagan as Young Bambi, Hardie Albright as Adolescent Bambi and Peter Behn as Young Thumper. The cast also includes Sam Edwards as Adult Thumper, John Sutherland as Adult Bambi, Paula Winslowe as Bambi’s Mother and Sterling Holloway (the voice of Winnie the Pooh and The Jungle Book’s Kaa, the snake) as Adult Flower.

BAMBI was nominated for three Academy Awards® for Best Song (“Love Is a Song,”), Best Sound Recording, and Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. To date, BAMBI is No. 3 on the list of American Film Institute’s Top 10 Animated Films of All Times. And in 2004, the movie was commemorated with a first-class U.S. postage stamp and in the 1990’s the film inspired astronomers to name a pair of asteroids after the adorable characters – Thumper (April 20, 1993) and Bambi (October 17, 1995).

Bonus Features:

Backstage Disney:

· Inside Walt’s Story Meetings-Enhanced Edition – A fascinating, multi-tiered, interactive story-telling experience. Go             back in time with dramatic voice re-enactments of the moments with Walt that led to the creation of this classic film.
· 2 Never Before Seen Deleted Scenes
· Deleted Song: “Twitterpated”
· Blu-ray Galleries—A collection of the extraordinary images originally created as part of the design process for BAMBI.
 
Family Play: Games & Activities:
· Disney’s Big Book of Knowledge: BAMBI Edition— An interactive educational gaming experience that uses the film as a learning tool. Players can customize their own Big Book of Knowledge and learn all about forest creatures, seasons andmore! Each time a player completes a task, they are rewarded with new stickers to decorate their Big Book of Knowledge.
 
Digital Exclusive:
· The Golden Age
 
Classic DVD Bonus Features:
· The Making Of BAMBI: A Prince Is Born—A comprehensive look at the making of BAMBI covers the story, the characters, the actors, the art design, the music and the history of Walt Disney’s classic film using behind the scenes footage, production stills, animation, artwork and multiple interviews withperformers and behind the scenes participants.
· Tricks of the Trade (excerpt)—In an episode from the 1957 Disneyland TV show, Walt narrates the story of the multiplane camera, an animation innovation crucial to the production of BAMBI.
· Inside the Disney Archives—Disney Supervising Animator Andreas Deja guides viewers through Disney’s Animation Research Library, where artwork from past Disney animated feature films is stored, including early story sketches of Bobo the rabbit,” (who became Thumper),  glass paintings made for the multiplane camera and more.
· The Old Mill—Winner of the 1937 Academy Award® for Best Short Subject/Cartoon, The Old Mill was a testing ground for several techniques critical to Walt’s artistic vision for BAMBI, including the multiplane camera, animating realistic animals and experimenting with such natural occurrences such as wind, rain and lightning.
· DisneyPedia: Bambi’s Forest Friends

I wanted to love this movie.  I really did.  Often cited as one of the great romantic comedies of all time, I went into this expecting something absolutely remarkable.  It was even nominted for six Academy Awards (winning three of them).  Well, it didn’t take long for me to realize that I wasn’t going to be jumping on the Moonstruck bandwagon.  I mean, I can definitely appreciate that people respond so well to it, but some movies just aren’t for everyone.  And this tale of love/infidelity just didn’t work for me.

I say this as a huge Nicolas Cage fan as well.  Lately, he’s been phoning in his performances, but in his prime, he was a powerhouse actor, reveling in the over-the-top characters he got to play.  And his portrayal of Ronnie is fantastic, for what it is.  Cher also does a great job with the role that she is given.  Considering how authentic their relationship felt, I was surprised at how little I was able to get invested in their story.

Cher stars as Loretta, a superstitious woman from Brooklyn, who believes that she is cursed after the death of her husband.  Because of her fears, she decides to play it safe and marry a sensible man that she doesn’t love.  When he has to suddenly leave the country, she ends up falling for her new fiances younger brother while delivering invitations.  This begins a passionate and confusing affair, made all the more complicated by the romantic drama taking place within her own family.

And I think that’s where my problems with the film lie.  I just didn’t enjoy spending time with this family.  I suppose it’s a well written script, but I couldn’t get into the culture of this group of people.  Loretta’s parents have their own issues, and watching those in relation to her own just couldn’t capture my interest.  It’s a little too over-the-top for my taste, with every character spouting dialogue that feels as if it’s from a screenplay and not real life.

I was hoping that the extras on the newly released Blu-Ray would help shed some light on what it is that everybody loves about the film.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of material, and what’s there seems as if it comes from previous releases.  The first feature is an audio commentary with Cher, director Norman Jewisn and writer John Patrick Shanley (obviously recorded seperately and edited together).  It’s a pretty straightforward track, without a lot of pauses.  It’s a good track for fans of the film, with a lot of interesting insights, but nothing swayed me on the film.

The next extra is a documentary called “Moonstruck: At the Heart of an Italian Family.”  Running about 25 minutes, this features several interviews with the cast and crew.  It’s an interesting retrospective, and focuses on a lot of different aspects of the film, including the film’s ultimate extremely positive reception.

Also included is a very brief (about six minutes) analysis of the film’s soundtrack.  Overall, I wish I liked the film more.  As I said, I appreciated it more than I enjoyed it.  The acting is great and the screenplay is competent.  But the familiy dynamics just proved overwhelming to me, and the characters frustrating with their decisions.  If you’re already a fan, it’s a decent disc.  There’s nothing spectacular about it, but the picture looks good, and the sound works well with what is given.  It’s not that I found the film bad, I just wasn’t able to enjoy it.  Hopefully, others will get more out of it than I did.

I am the type of person that almost always goes into a film about mental illness with a degree of cynicism.  It just seems to me that, by their very nature, these films are designed to manipulate an audience by playing on their sympathies.  If you end up not liking the film, it can seem like an attack on whatever illness is being portrayed.  However, Dustin Hoffman’s performance in Rain Man feels so achingly realized, I can’t help but sit transfixed, mesmerized by the magic trick he is pulling off on screen.

Hoffman becomes Raymond Babbitt, an autistic savant struggling to stay sane within his own insanity.  When I watch this performance, I see a man trapped within his own head, a prisoner to his own idiosyncracies.  When he becomes agitated, he retreats into the Abbott and Costello “Who’s On First” routine, but there is no humor there.  It’s an escape, and it’s moments like this that are just hearbreaking.

Every mannerism is perfectly realized to this end, and it’s still one of Hoffman’s greatest performances.  Tom Cruise gives an equally fantastic performance as Charlie Babbitt, Raymond’s brother.  When the film begins, Charlie is a money-obsessed lamborghini dealer.  He too appears trapped within his own head, confined by greed.  Letting money dictate his life, he alienates those around him, even his own girlfriend.  When his father dies, he goes to collect what he believes will be a substantial inheritance, only to get a car and his father’s prize rose bushes.  It is when he follows the trail of the money he didn’t receive that he discovers his long lost older brother, Raymond.

This is where the film really begins, as Charlie takes Raymond on a cross-country road trip to try and get the rest of the inheritance that Charlie believes is rightfully his.  Of course, along the way, they get to really know each other, and while Charlie doesn’t completely transform as a character, he does become a better person.

This is a funny and serious look at two people suffering from their own mental issues.  One is a literal disease, and the other is a state-of-mind.  The way these two characters play off of each other in their journey makes for a believable and entertaining film, and one that works despite the difficulties of the genre.  Unfortunately, the Blu-Ray release doesn’t include any new features.  There are a few extras, but they all seem as if they came from previous releases.

There are three commentary tracks, one with director Barry Levinson, and the other two with the writers.  While all three are interesting in spurts, there’s nothing that makes them “must-listen” tracks.  There’s also a fairly entertaining behind-the-scenes documentary called “The Journey of Rain Man,” that provides a look at the making of the film.  Next up is a documentary called “Lifting the Fog: A Look at the Mysteries of Autism,” which is exactly what it sounds like.  An interesting look at the disease that inspired the fim, this feature contains insight and interviews with people who really suffer from the disease, and those who influenced the writing of the film.  There is also a single deleted scene, and the original trailer.

The picture looks good, but is nothing outstanding.  It’s a decent transfer, but it seems like it could have been cleaned-up a little bit more.  There is nothing distractingly bad about it, there’s just nothing all that stunning either.  The film sounds great, however, especially in a sequence where Charlie takes Raymond to Vegas to count cards.

Overall, the Blu-Ray release is nothing special, but the film definitely is.  I’ve seen the movie before, but I was struck by just how powerful the performances really are.  A well-deserved winner of 4 Academy-Awards, this is a really great movie, and a worthy addition to any film collection.

With a boast that “the passion is even hotter on Blu-Ray” printed on the box, Last Tango In Paris arrives with the promise of something worth getting excited about.  The film’s plot is described using words such as “scandalous” and “scintillating.”  All of this together could be seen as pretty enticing, and didn’t seem to match the dark nature of everything I’d heard about the film.  I mean, I knew the stories about the film, and how stars Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider had trouble coping with the aftermath of making the film, both comparing the making the film to being raped.  I’ve seen pictures of the protests and read a great deal of the divisive literature written about the film.  And I knew about the graphic sexuality that was the undercurrent of the controversy.  For these reasons, I never had any desire to see the movie.  While I try to love all cinema, this one just seemed like too much for me.

So, as I went into the film, I wasn’t sure what to believe.  Would it be as uncomfortable as I feared?  I guess the answer is yes, but not really for the reasons I expected.  While there is a lot of graphic sexuality in the film, I found the script to be just as disturbing.  This is the story of Paul and Jeanne, two broken individuals who decide to pursue an anonymous sexual relationship in order to work out their psychological issues.  They meet every day in an empty apartment Paul rents, and the only rule is that they can never know each other’s names or anything about their personal lives.

Paul is recovering from the suicide of his wife, while Jeanne is engaged to a young filmmaker, and is miserable.  The torrid nature of their trysts provide some sort of outlet for the darkness within.  However, when the rules are broken, everything changes.  As I said, the sex is very uncomfortable, and there is nothing “passionate” about it, as the box seems to indicate.  This is a very cold and disturbing movie.

It’s hard to discuss a movie like this without getting too graphic.  I’ll just say that the film is controversial for several reasons, and rightly so.  This is a very adult film, and not one for people looking for a good time.  I can appreciate the film, and the artistry behind the scenes.  It is a powerful story, masterfully acted and directed.  Brando even got an Oscar nominatin for his performance.  However, despite the talent involved, I really don’t feel like this was a movie I needed to see, and it’s one I will have a hard time recommending to people.

As for the Blu-Ray release, everything about it is adequate.  I wasn’t blown away by the picture or the sound, but with a movie like this, I wasn’t expecting to be.  This is a very minimalistic film, and as such, so is the presentation.  As for extras, I was shocked to find that the only feature included is the trailer.  There is so much history involved in this film, I was really expecting a lot more.

I love film history, sometimes as much as the film itself.  I love knowing the context of a film’s release, and while I’d already familiarized myself with this one, I would have appreciated some sort of look back at the film from a historical perspective.  A trailer just isn’t enough these days.  Despite the fact that it is a film classic, I just can’t recommend this particular release.

I’m going to begin with a confession.  Until this viewing, I had never seen Thelma and Louise.  I always cite Ridley Scott as one of my favorite directors, and despite the fact that many consider this to be one of his best films, I was never able to muster up enough interest to actually give it a try.  Every clip I ever saw looked tedious, and with it being impossible not to know the ending, I never really saw the point.

Well, it turns out that knowing the ending is irrelevant.  As the saying goes, it isn’t so much about the destination as it is the journey.  Often described as a female-empowerment flick, Thelma and Louise is in the most basic terms a story of two friends (Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis) on a roadtrip.  I wouldn’t say the film is so much a female-empowerment film as it is a film about self-discovery.  After killing an attempted rapist, Thelma and Louise find themselves on the run from the law.  Along the way, they will learn who they really are, and as everyone knows, end up making the ultimate sacrifice.

While Sarandon and Davis prove what amazing actors they are, they are surrounded by an equally amazing supporting cast including Brad Pitt and Harvey Keitel.  Pitt especially was a revelation, and this is the film that helped kick-start his career.  A film like this doesn’t work unless everyone involved is working at the top of their game.  The cinematography gorgeously depicts their journey across the mid-West, while Hans Zimmer provides an appropriately Western sounding score.  The dialogue is smart and realistic, and as mentioned above, Ridley Scott does a fantastic job directing.

Considering I had never seen the film before, I had never seen any previously released extras either.  However, it should be noted that all of the extras on this 20th Anniversary edition are repeats from previous releases.  They aren’t bad, they just aren’t new.  However, what I imagine is new is the incredible transfer on this film.  The picture and sound could have been from a movie released today.  At times, the film feels like a classic Western, and every aspect of their journey across the landscape just pops off the screen.  It really is a gorgeous film.

The extras include two commentary tracks, one with Ridley Scott, and the other with Sarandon, Davis and screenwriter Callie Khouri.  There is also a feature that runs just over 45 minutes called “Thelma & Louise: The Last Journey.”  This is a comprehensive look at the entire production.  It’s an interesting look back, and defintely worth checking out if you haven’t already seen it.  After this comes a five-minute Elecronic Press Kit.  Nothing too exciting there.

One of the more interesting features is one that I didn’t even know existed.  There is an extended alternate ending.  Yes, the iconic fade to white was not how the film originally ended.  Conceptually, it’s not all that different, but emotionally, it leaves the audience in a completely different place.  I vastly prefer the original, but it’s interesting from a historical perspective, especially considering that I always assumed the ending to be one of the most defining moments of the film.

There are also deleted and extended scenes, a music video, and some storyboards of the final chase.  Overall, it’s not the greatest set of extras I’ve ever seen, but they do their job.  They provide a little bit of insight, an interesting look back at the making of the film, and some different perspectives on things overall.

The film ended up being a lot better than I expected.  I’m glad I was able to set aside my expectations, and let myself get caught up in the film.  It works on almost every level, and I can see why, twenty years later, the film is still considered a classic.