36th Film Society Of Lincoln Center’s Gala Tribute Honoring Tom Hanks In NYC

Celebrities arriving to the 36th Film Society Of Lincoln Center’s Gala Tribute Honoring Tom Hanks In NYC. Pictured: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson Picture by: Richie Buxo / Splash News. Content © 2009 Splash News . All rights reserved.

You’ve Got Mail (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

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CAST: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Jean Stapleton
DIRECTED BY: Nora Ephron
WRITTEN BY: Nora Ephron
RATING: PG
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL:http://us.imdb.com/Title?0128853
TYPE OF MOVIE: Comedy, Romance
DURATION: 119 minutes

The underlying narrative is an even more old-fashioned romantic pas de deux that is casually hooked to a newfangled device. The script, cowritten by the director and her sister, Delia Ephron, updates and relocates the Ernst Lubitsch classic, The Shop Around the Corner, to contemporary Manhattan, where Joe Fox (Hanks) is a cheerfully rapacious merchant whose chain of book superstores is gobbling up smaller, more specialized shops such as the children’s bookstore owned by Kathleen Kelly (Ryan). Their lives run in close parallel in the same idealized neighborhood, yet they first meet anonymously, online, where they gradually nurture a warm, even intimate correspondence. As they begin to wonder whether this e-mail flirtation might lead them to be soul mates, however, they meet and clash over their colliding business fortunes. (IMDB)

DVD EXTRAS:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby
• Commentary by director Nora Ephron and producer Lauren Shuler-Donner
• Production notes
• Theatrical trailer(s)
• Musical score on alternate audio track
• Behind-the-scenes documentary: “HBO First Look: A Conversation with Nora Ephron”
• Interactive map tour “Discover New York’s Upper West Side”
• Widescreen anamorphic format

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S):

Comparison feature:
Press Skip while watching the HBO documentary to see a feature that compares various scenes with the two prior movie versions of the story, The Shop Around The Corner and In The Good Old Summertime.

Hidden interviews:
Advance to the following sections of the disc to view various interviews:

Title 57, Chapter 1
Title 58, Chapter 1
Title 59, Chapter 1
Title 60, Chapter 1

DVD REVIEW:

Nora Ephron scores again with another romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan.  First, “When Harry Met Sally” which she wrote and then “Sleepless in Seattle” and now we have “You’ve Got Mail”.  A romantic comedy about people who meet via e-mail.

The movie came out at the right time in the theaters because the talk then was about internet romance and what better than to take the movie “The Shop Around The corner”, “In the Goold Old Summertime” and add the Internet twist.  It worked!

The DVD is also beautiful with good colors and the audio is typical for a dialogue movie.  The DVD has quite a commentary, isolated score, a documentary and an interactive map.

If you enjoyed the movie, I highly recommend buying this DVD!

THE MOVIE: B+
THE DVD EXTRAS: A-
THE DVD OVERALL: A-

Philadelphia (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

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MOVIE COMPANY: PARAMOUNT
DVD reviewed by Dennis A. Amith
CAST: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington,
DIRECTED BY: Jonathan Demme
WRITTEN BY: Ron Nyswaner
RATED: RATED PG-13
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0107818
TYPE OF MOVIE: Drama
DURATION: 125 minutes

A gay lawyer stricken with AIDS seeks assistance from a homophobic personal injury attorney when a prestigious Philadelphia law firm fires him for incompetence. Not the standard ‘issue’ movie or even the standard courtroom drama but a sensitive and heartfelt look at the affect of AIDS on family, friends and the people who interact with an AIDS victim.

DVD REVIEW:

First let me discuss how impressed I was at this movie.  It’s very good and it deserved every Academy Award it has won.  It’s another very good Tom Hanks film and it’s one of those movies that people and law students will enjoy.

Second, this is one of the first DVD’s that came out, the menu and other things you would see in today’s DVD’s are not present with this DVD.  This DVD is one of the early forms and thus seeing this DVD late, you can only wish there were special features and things that make DVD’s so special these days.   Otherwise this is a good movie and is a must watch.

As for the audio, it’s very good for a dialogue movie and the video is good as well.  As for special features, read the second paragraph.

The movie is definitely an ace but the DVD overall well…

THE MOVIE:  A
THE DVD EXTRAS:  D-
THE DVD OVERALL: (movie-A, DVD: C-)

Sleepless in Seattle (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

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MOVIE COMPANY: TriStar Pictures
CAST: Starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Rob Reiner, Bill Pullman, Rita Wilson, Rosie O’Donnell, David Hyde Pierce and more.
DIRECTED BY: Nora Ephron
PRODUCED BY: Gary Foster
RATING: Rated PG
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0108160
TYPE OF MOVIE: Comedy, Romance

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan star in Nora Ephron’s wonderfully romantic comedy about two people drawn together by destiny.

Hank stars as Sam Baldwin, a widowed father who, thanks to the wiles of his worried son, becomes a reluctant guest on a radio call-in show.  He’s an instant hit with thousands of female listeners, who deluge his Seattle home with letters of comfort.  Meanwhile, inspired in equal parts by Sam’s story and by classic Hollywood romance, writer Annie Reed (Ryan) becomes convinced that it’s her destiny to meet Sam.  There are just two problems:  Annie’s engaged to someone else, and Sam doesn’t know – yet – that they’re made for each other.  Co-starring Rosie O’Donnell, Rita Wilson and Rob Reiner, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE is “absolutely enchanting-one of the year’s most completely enjoyable motion pictures” Michael Medved, Sneak Previews.

DVD EXTRAS:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen
• Commentary by director/co-writer Nora and co-writer Delia Ephron
• Theatrical trailer(s)
• Featurette Love In The Movies
• Music Video: Celine Dion and Clive Griffin, When I Fall In Love
• Trailers for My Best Friend’s Wedding, It Could Happen To You, Philadelphia and Nothing in Common
• Full-screen and widescreen anamorphic formats

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None that I could find.

DVD REVIEW:

I have been a fan of Ephron’s work and also of movies such as “When Harry Met Sally”, “You’ve Got Mail”…love stories.  I’m not sure how many times I have seen this movie but I love it.

The thing is I own the VHS copy and when the first DVD came out, “Widescreen Edition”, I was disappointed.  The reason is because it was just the movie and it was widescreen, that’s it?

Well, not too long ago, they released a second DVD.  The “Special Edition”.  Now, I’m happy because it’s widescreen and it has quite a few extras but it wasn’t in digital 5.1.  I know this is a dialogue movie but I watched many dialogue movies that still use 5.1.

Aside from that this is the right DVD to get, especially if you enjoy love stories.  I’m so happy to see the music video of “When I Fall in Love” by Celine Dion and Clive Griffin.  Also, there are a few theatrical trailers.  Also, they included subtitles from other three Asian countries (except Japanese…what’s up with that?)

The commentary was very interesting.  To hear Nora Ephron and her sister (the fourth writer in the movie) Delia discuss how certain things happen in the movie and especially how Tom Hanks did certain things to enhance a scene.  It shows how good and how true this actor is for his work.

I know there were several cut scenes but I wish they included them in the movie.  The featurette was interesting especially to see Adam Corolla and Dr. Drew of “Loveline” in it.

What it boils down to is it’s better than the VHS version if you love the movie and it’s definitely better than the previous DVD because it comes with more features.

If you enjoy love stories, this is one that will be a classic for romantics forever.

THE MOVIE:  A
THE DVD EXTRAS:  B+
THE DVD OVERALL:  A-

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