Waukegan Public Library - DVD

Have You Heard About... Tooth Fairy 2

Fran J — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:05:17 +0000

… Larry the Cable Guy in a pink tutu? Larry the Cable Guy plays Larry Guthrie, a bumbling but loveable guy who is trying to win his girl, Brooke, back from Beau, who’s running for mayor. In Tooth Fairy 2, Larry lets slip that there is no tooth fairy. Big mistake. The head of the tooth fairies, who looks like a kid, is actually 500 years old and hears of this grave misspoken mistake. In order for Larry to win Brooke back he has to be a tooth fairy, dressed in a pink tutu. Mean ol’ Beau steals new toys from Brooke’s after-school day care to make Larry look bad. You’ll crack up at all of the situations that Larry gets into. You’ll meet Crusher the pig who helps Larry along. Will Larry collect all of the teeth he needs to git-r-done and win Brooke back?

This is a DVD for the entire family. You won’t have to explain to little kids what’s real or isn’t. It’s magic! In the special extras at the end the Tooth Fairy/Larry explains why you lose baby teeth, which is pretty cute also.

If you enjoy this DVD you might also like to check out the original Tooth Fairy with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The very end of that DVD is well after the credits, and you don’t want to miss it.

Reviewed by Terry (staff)

Have You Heard About... Chimpanzee

Fran J — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 06:16:31 +0000

… comedian Tim Allen, a cute little guy named Oscar and the “rumble in the jungle”? Tim Allen, best known as “Tim the Tool Man” from TV’s Tool Time, is the narrator of Chimpanzee from Disneynature. As Tim describes what is going on in the African rain forest, you meet little Oscar, the cutest chimpanzee ever, that will melt you heart. Oscar and his mom are part of a group that takes care of each other. You’ll meet Grandpa, several aunts, uncles and cousins, and Freddy, the leader of the group. As Oscar learns about life from his mom, Tim is telling us what is going on in his best “tool man” dialogue that is at times funny and yet endearing.

As leader of this group, Freddy is always on the lookout for the best food (ants on a stick, anyone?) and safest places to stay (30 feet in the air).

Enter Scar, the leader of a nasty group of chimpanzees. Scar and his gang seem to want to take over the whole forest and all it has to offer. A battle for dominance leaves Oscar an orphan. How can little Oscar survive without his mom? Who is the “winner” of the battle?

Freddy becomes an adoptive parent. Through trial and error, you will see little Oscar thrive.

This is a family movie, but I recommend that parents watch it with kids under seven due to the battle scenes and one feeding frenzy. Nothing is graphic, but with the noise of these two scenes, little kids might not understand.

The photography is astounding. Keep watching and listening after THE END to see a little bit of how the movie was made.

Although this movie is in our Blu-ray collection, the case has both the Blu-ray and the DVD versions.

Reviewed by Terry (staff)

Have You Heard About... Adventures in America’s Western Parks: The Great Southwest

Fran J — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:05:11 +0000

…the scenic southwest parks of the USA? The non-fiction travelogue Adventures in America’s Western Parks: The Great Southwest has lots of ideas for seeing nature up close and personal. Whether you like to rock climb, hike, bike or take a car ride, the southwestern part of the US is the place to do it.

Incredible, breathtaking scenery of the canyons, buttes, mesas and valleys fill this DVD. You’ll wonder why people endure the scorching heat of Death Valley, rappel down canyon walls, or decide not to go to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. See where Georgia O’Keefe got the inspirations for her paintings, where Hollywood made some of the greatest western movies of all time or just get your kicks on Route 66.

The extra features chronicle the firefighters of the Grand Canyon and how they keep the park from excessive fires. You can also learn how the Navajo Indians make their beautiful rugs. As an armchair traveler, you can experience all of this and more and not have to pay a penny for the two-hour “vacation.”

Reviewed by Terry (staff)

Have You Heard About... Sergeants 3

Fran J — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:30:17 +0000

…the great Western movie, Sergeants 3? Remember the Rat Pack from the ‘60s? Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop — the masters of “cool” — do a western spoof on the classic film Gunga Din. As the cut-ups that these guys are, you can tell a lot of the film is spur-of-the-moment dialog.

In a lonely frontier outpost these guys have to hold off the Indians until help arrives in a nick of time. Politically incorrect for our times, this movie is still wonderful to watch.

Reviewed by Terry (staff)

Have You Heard About... Barrage

Fran J — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 06:22:08 +0000

… a traveling band of gypsies? Treat yourself to the musical DVD Barrage, Vagabond Tales. Through music, you will learn about a group of traveling gypsies who gather in their ancestral land to decide who gets leadership of the tribe. This is a twelve-person ensemble of mostly violins and fiddles and lots of hijinks. The narrator tells the story as these extremely talented musicians play their music and dance and sing a little bit.

A little bit of country, folk, bluegrass, jazz and pop songs are preformed as the story unfolds. They make it look so easy. In the bonus features, it tells how this incredible group came together, and how they manage to combine all of this talent and the gypsy tale into something wondrous. Some of the songs include Birdland, Eleanor Rigby, Tico Tico and Sweet Georgia Brown.

Reviewed by Terry (staff)

Have You Heard About... Nature: Waddlers & Paddlers

Fran J — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 06:52:39 +0000

… all of the different kinds of penguins and where they live, or the baby sea otter who lost his mother? The first part of the DVD Nature: Waddlers & Paddlers, “The World of Penguins” – the Waddlers – explores the different types of penguins and where they live. Most people know about the emperor penguins who live in the very cold freezing temperatures, but did know there are also penguins who live in the desert? Some even live in caves. Yellow eyed penguins are the rarest. There are even small blue penguins who live in Australia. These extraordinary creatures are flightless birds that live in two very different worlds.

In the second half of this DVD, “The Sea Otter Story: Warm Heart and Cold Water,” you will see the Paddlers. This is the story of an orphan sea otter. He’s so cute and cuddly, but be careful of his very sharp teeth. The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California is where these orphans are raised to go back into the wild. Human moms have to nurture these babies and teach them to groom themselves, find food and avoid their natural predators, all without becoming too attached these little darlings.

I thought this was an interesting and informative and entertaining way to spend the evening.

Reviewed by Terry (staff)

Have You Heard About... Riding the Rails

Fran J — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:13:02 +0000

… riding the rails during the Depression? In this fantastic documentary about Riding the Rails, it sure makes today’s tough economic times look like a picnic. This film won awards for Best Documentary of 1997 from both the Directors Guild of America and the Los Angeles Film Critics.

From 1929-1941, lots of kids were kicked out of their homes because of too many mouths to feed in the tough times. In Riding the Rails, the kids who survived, now adults, tell their tales of the danger, the hunger and what it took to survive. We think of the Depression as a lot of men out of work, standing in long bread lines for food. Well, a lot of girls rode the rails just like the guys, and it was a lot more dangerous for them. One of the good things about the Depression was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and a lot of these rail riders were finally able to get the jobs they so desperately needed. One of my relatives was a rail rider and part of the CCC that helped to form the beautiful Starved Rock State Park near Utica, Illinois. This movie made his stories come alive for me. Riding the Rails makes you appreciate what you have today.

Reviewed by Terry (staff)

Have You Heard About... The Big Year

Fran J — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:22:23 +0000

… how funny bird watching can be? OK, The Big Year was seriously hilarious. At first I thought, “Oh great, three of the world’s biggest hams together in one movie. They are just going to try to upstage each other the whole time.” Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson. Enough said, right? But they were all perfect! Each had some super silly moments to shine, but overall they played very real characters and I found myself looking past the actors and caring about the people they portrayed.

According to the film, having a “big year” is an expression in bird watching (or birding as the professionals call it) for a calendar year in which an avid birder tries to see as many North American species as possible. It was fun to see the beautiful birds, but you don’t have to be into birding to enjoy this movie. The Big Year also starred Brian Dennehy as J.B.’s father, one of my favorite parts of the movie.

Don’t miss this one; it’s a blast and family friendly!

Reviewed by Heidi (staff)

Have You Heard About... The Sacketts

Fran J — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:32:40 +0000

…Louis L’Amour’s great Westerns? The Sacketts is based on two Louis L’Amour books – The Daybreakers and Sackett. These two stories are intertwined to make one great western movie starring Sam Elliott, Tom Selleck, Ben Johnson, Glenn Ford and a host of old time western characters actors. Cattle, mining, card sharks, right vs. wrong – this movie has it all.

Originally shown on TV in 1979 as a miniseries, this three-hour classic is not to be missed. This movie was not put into a DVD format until 2006, so the bonus feature is important to watch also.

Reviewed by Terry (staff)

Have You Heard About... Coupling

Fran J — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:56:00 +0000

… the sexy sit-com from Britain? Coupling is a fun series about sex and relationships, centered on a group of six friends – a couple, their exes, and their best friends – played by Jack Davenport, Gina Bellman, Sarah Alexander, Kate Isitt, Ben Miles, and Richard Coyle. The first series includes episodes on breaking up, starting new relationships, pornography, and funerals. That may sound typical for a relationship-focused sit-com, but it also covers the Sock Gap, the Giggle Loop, and the Relationship Zone.

The characters in Coupling are a bit stereotyped, but mostly so that they can poke fun at the stereotypes. Each of the characters also has his or her own quirks, neuroses, and in some cases, outright insanity. What do you do when your girlfriend doesn’t accept being dumped? Is there a good way to explain why you’re hiding in someone’s closet of pornographic tapes? How can anyone manage to accidentally tell a woman that they collect ears in a bucket?

If you like British humor, like Monty Python and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, or buddy sit-coms, like Friends, then you’ll probably enjoy Coupling. It’s full of beautiful British deadpans, wry humor, and wackiness, plus good friends who put up with one another’s oddities.

Reviewed by Fran (staff)