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Documentary DVDs

A History of Britain - The Complete Collection (2008 Repackage)

Sales Rank:3772
List Price: $39.95
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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Box set
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What do you get when you combine the resources and ethos of the BBC with the literary panache of one of the world's best narrative historians? The answer is Simon Schama's History of Britain television series. In this well-written and thoughtfully crafted survey, Schama, the bestselling author of books on European cultural history such as The Embarrassment of Riches and Citizens, has managed to be both conventional and provocative. He tells the official version of Britain's story--Roman Britain, the Norman Conquest, the struggles of the Henrys and Richards, Elizabeth I, Scottish rebellions and the English Civil Wars, the American Revolution, the growth of the British Empire, Queen Victoria, the industrial age, and Winston Churchill. But while sticking to a script familiar to anyone who sat up and listened during history class, Schama brings it all alive with memorable prose and presence--Simon de Montfort's rebel parliament is described as inaugurating the "union between patriotism and insubordination"; with Henry VIII, Schama says, "you could practically smell the testosterone." Schama is also particularly enlightening on the symbolism of buildings, memorials, language, and ceremonies, and on the complex relations between England and its Celtic and Catholic neighbors. If history must have gloss, then let it be presented like this. --Miles Taylor

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Caillou - Caillou, The Everyday Hero

Sales Rank:3996
List Price: $12.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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Animated
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Color
DVD-Video
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Includes CAILLOU TO THE RESCUE: Caillou Helps Out, Caillou the Firefighter, and Caillou to the Rescue; CAILLOU THE DETECTIVE: Where’s Gilbert?, Where I Saw it Last, and Lost in the Jungle; CAILLOU THE BRAVE: Caillou and the Water Slide, Caillou the Sailor, and Creepy Crawlies!; and CAILLOU THE BUILDER: Caillou the Road Builder, Caillou’s Building Adventure, and House in the Sky.

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Blue Planet (IMAX) [Blu-ray]

Sales Rank:2005
List Price: $28.99
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MPAA Rating: Unrated

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AC-3
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The IMAX film Blue Planet offers an eloquent reminder--and a cautionary warning--that the planet Earth is a delicate living organism, constantly reshaped and rejuvenated by the awesome forces of nature. The film targets a grade-school audience but will prove informative to anyone fascinated by our home planet's evolution. Hurricanes, glaciers, volcanoes, thunderstorms, asteroid impacts, undersea furnace vents, and earthquakes are all explored as a system of interconnected forces that ensure the planet's survival. The difference between this and other nature films is that the Earth's delicacy is emphasized by stunning views from space, filmed in the IMAX format by NASA astronauts in orbit 200 miles above the Earth's surface. With astonishing clarity, this orbital perspective supports the film's ultimate purpose: to reveal the awesome beauty of the Earth, and to emphasize that we, the custodians of this miraculous gift, are also the greatest threat to the planet's delicate health. Proof of man's destructive influence offers a sobering reminder that our responsibility toward nature is perpetual, essential, and routinely abused.

Blue Planet combines state-of-the-art sound and image, principally directed by Ben Burtt, the Oscar-winning sound designer whose credits include the original Star Wars trilogy. No home-theater system could do full justice to the film's technical achievement, but the sights and sounds of Blue Planet are awesome nonetheless, and it's impossible to overstate the importance of the film's message and its hopeful emphasis on the potentially wondrous future of our one and only home. --Jeff Shannon

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Animusic - A Computer Animation Video Album (Special Edition)

Sales Rank:1695
List Price: $19.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Animated
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NTSC
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Actor(s):

Watching Animusic is like being mesmerized by the world's most elaborate Rube Goldberg devices: You're so astonished by their ingenuity that you can't look away. This "computer animation video album" is the brainchild of Wayne Lytle, a progressive-rock keyboardist and 1988 graduate of Cornell University's Program of Computer Graphics. Modifying techniques originally applied to the visualization of scientific data, Lytle partnered with graphic artist and 3D modeler Dave Crognale to create elaborate virtual stage sets and imaginary musical instruments that are driven via MIDI interface to virtually "play" the music that Lytle has composed for them. "The music drives the instruments," explains Lytle in his engaging DVD commentary, "and not the other way around." Using proprietary software called MIDImotion™, Lytle and Crognale have invented self-playing musical instruments that exist in a magical realm of musical and mathematical precision, perfectly synchronized to the kind of fully-synthesized prog-rock that Lytle obviously enjoys (and if you're a fan of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman, you will, too). It's the kind of audiovisual bombast that appeals to some more than others (and there's something oddly impersonal about removing humans from the performance of music), but Animusic is so intricately clever that anyone can be captivated by the meticulous novelty of these beautifully engineered musical marvels.

Take, for example, the most popular track, "Pipe Dream," in which thousands of animated balls take on a life of their own, popping out of an intricate system of pipes and barrels and bouncing, with percussive precision, onto all varieties of strings, drums, xylophones, timbales, cowbells... it's just hypnotically amazing. The same holds true for all of these videos, and while the colorful 3D rendering of Animusic (first released in 2001) is no longer state-of-the-art, the underlying mechanics remain timelessly appealing. For this special edition DVD released in 2004, Lytle opens his toy-box to reveal the creative process of Animusic from conceptual drawings to final 3D rendering. There's also a "solo-cam" function allowing viewers to switch angular focus from one instrument to another, along with animated set-construction demonstrations to show how everything fits together in the realm of Animusic. The 5.1-channel surround mix makes Animusic a perfect demonstration disc for high-end video systems (this is nothing if not a geek's delight), and Lytle's first animation (from 1996) is included along with a sneak-peek at Animusic 2, the follow-up DVD released in 2005. --Jeff Shannon

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The Original Kings of Comedy

Sales Rank:4426
List Price: $9.98
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Anamorphic
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Actor(s):

Steve Harvey
D.L. Hughley
Cedric the Entertainer
Bernie Mac

The Original Kings of Comedy achieves the seemingly impossible task of capturing the rollicking and sly comedy routines of stand-up and sitcom vets Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Bernie Mac and the magic of experiencing a live concert show. Director Spike Lee and his crew plant a multitude of cameras in a packed stadium and onstage (as well as backstage, as they follow the comedians) to catch the vivid immediacy of the show, which is as much about the audience as it is about the jokes. And the jokes are funny.

All four riff fast and furiously (and with much swearing) on the world in terms of race, family, sex, and in one routine, outer space. Hughley takes comedic aim at extreme sports and eating disorders, while Cedric harks back to the day when gang fights meant calling opponents out onto the dance floor. Bernie Mac, the self-confessed id comedian of the group, presents a routine that is simultaneously offensive and hilarious--an apt reminder that comedy can and should be vicious if we are ever to learn to laugh at ourselves and hopefully be the better for it. Harvey, who acts as the MC for the show, has some transcendent moments with the crowd (a '70s slow jam sing-along, anyone?) that have to be seen to be believed. There's no doubt as to why Kings was a hit with concert and movie audiences; the laughs keep coming, in the tradition of Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, with a sharp eye on the nuances of today's racially affected culture. --Shannon Gee

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The Polar Express [HD DVD]

Sales Rank:5636
List Price: $28.99
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Anamorphic
Color
Dolby
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Director(s):

Actor(s):

Tom Hanks
Chris Coppola
Michael Jeter
Leslie Zemeckis
Eddie Deezen

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New York City Ballet: Bringing Balanchine Back

Sales Rank:2560
List Price: $19.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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'New York City Ballet: Bringing Ballachine Back' follows the New York City Ballet, lead by Master in Chief Peter Martins to the Mariinsky theater in St. Petersburg, where ballet legend and NYC Ballet co-founder George Ballachine, along with other greats, took their first ballet steps. The eagerly anticipated trip is the first for the company since 1972 and is gracefully illustrated with both behind-the-scenes and performance footage.

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Mythbusters: Collection 2 (3pc)

Sales Rank:2173
List Price: $29.99
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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Ever wonder if human teeth could stop a speeding bullet? You're about to find out! Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage are back to test a host of the most insane and dangerous myths ever dreamed of. No theory is safe from the scrutiny of the MythBusters, who take on the Hindenburg disaster, Tesla's Earthquake Machine, the Mentos mint-Diet Coke Internet myth and much, much more! From the wacky (can a hurricane blow the feathers off a chicken?) to the death-defying, Hyneman and Savage go where no reasonable people have gone before in separating the reality from the ridiculous!

EPISODES: Helium Football: Field test helium-filled footballs to find out if they stay aloft higher and longer than regulation air-filled balls. Then face a firing line to discover the bullet-halting capability of human teeth.

Bullets Fired Up: See if celebratory bullets shot into the air can kill when they return to Earth, and find out whether low-grade vodka can be transformed into a top-shelf spirit with an ordinary household water filter.

Killer Whirlpool: Literature is filled with nautical tales of ships being sucked to deathly ocean depths by killer whirlpools, but could such a thing really happen? Then discover whether snowplows can blow a car off the road or if that?s just a snow job.

Crimes and Myth-demeanors 2: Test the most high-tech home alarm systems on the market, including stripping down to birthday suits, getting sprayed with dry-ice and donning a Big Bird-like yellow rug to evade burglary detection.

Deadly Straw: Test burning barnyard myths like whether a hurricane can blow the feathers of a chicken.

Earthquake Machine: Take on Nikolai Tesla, one of the greatest scientists and inventor of all time. Unbelievably coming up with a working prototype of Tesla's Earthquake Machine, the pair put a California bridge to the test.

Diet Coke and Mentos: Inspired by an Internet myth, the MythBusters pair various sodas and candies together until they create the most explosive cocktail possible. Then: Can putting a postage stamp on a helicopter's rotor blades send it into a tailspin?

Anti-Gravity Device: Celebrate the magic of the holiday season by loading strings of hot lights on a Christmas tree to see how long it takes for the tree to burst into flames.

Firearms Folklore: Test the likelihood that a criminal's bullet could hit and then jam the chamber of a policeman's revolver and whether a sniper could kill another by shooting straight down the enemy gun scope.

Holiday Special: Yodel to an avalanche in this special episode, then exhaustively test for the best Christmas tree-water cocktail to keep the needles from falling off.

Pirate Special: Test period swords, cannons, guns and the laundry-cleaning capabilities of grog.

Hindenburg Mystery: It's generally accepted that the hydrogen keeping the Hindenburg afloat sparked the infamous inferno, but could other chemical reactions actually have caused the blaze?

Underwater Car: The team willingly recreates many people's worst nightmare: being trapped in a car submerged in water after a crash.

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Classic Albums: Rio

Sales Rank:5139
List Price: $14.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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This latest addition to the acclaimed Classic Albums series takes us to the early eighties and the release of Duran Duran's second album "Rio". Released against a backdrop of riots, record unemployment and the Falklands War this optimistic and celebratory album would generate a string of hit singles and groundbreaking videos and catapult Duran Duran to global stardom. This DVD tells the story behind the writing, recording and subsequent success of the album through newly filmed interviews, musical demonstrations and both new and archive performances.

TRACK LISTING: Features excerpts from: Rio, My Own Way, Hungry Like The Wolf, New Religion, Save A Prayer, The Chauffeur & more...

Bonus Features: Brand new session performances filmed in Boston especially for this DVD of: 1) Save A Prayer 2) The Chauffeur 3) New Religion 4) Hungry Like The Wolf 5) Rio. Additional interviews and demonstrations not included in the broadcast version.

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Teletubbies: What's That?

Sales Rank:2572
List Price: $9.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
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NTSC

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