Welcome to our October 2008 DVD reviews & video reviews.
Home video is exploding these days because of one thing:
High Definition Digital Television. The high definition video disc format wars are over, and that should mean an
ever-increasing number of titles in the new Blu-Ray format. We hope you enjoy this archive of our
DVD reviews & home video reviews archive for October, 2008.
Fox and MGM have teamed to create a library of fully-restored and digitally enhanced versions
of the James Bond movies. Originally released in 1962, "Dr. No" was the first Bond movie.
Under the tutelage of director Terrance Young,
Sean Connery established author Ian Fleming's debonair spy in movie history as the prototype for modern
secret agents. Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of another agent who
was killed. Teaming with CIA Agent Felix Leiter (Jack Lord), they learn that a Chinese scientist
named Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman) has been responsible for interfering with rocket launches from Cape Canaveral in
Florida. With another launch imminent, Bond must stop this madman.
My father took me to see this movie when it was re-released a year later in a double-feature with the
second Bond movie, "From Russia With Love". Having watched it dozens of times on television
in the intervening years, the Blu-ray version is so incredibly lush and detailed that it was like seeing
an entirely different movie. The disc includes a documentary on the restoration process, which lets
you really appreciate the effort required to bring this 40 year-old movie up to modern technical
standards. But even more valuable is the documentary on the origins of Bond in the movies which tells
the story of producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli and how they struggled for years to
get this movie made. The list of actors who were considered for the role of James Bond certainly
made me giggle. But I laughed out loud when it turns out that they decided on Sean Connery after
seeing him in the Disney movie "Darby O'Gill and The Little People"! A fun family film,
to be sure, but the absurdity of the contrast in roles couldn't be more extreme. There's a fabulous
history of the Bond movies here, as told by many of the principals, including Sean Connery and
the lovely Ursula Andress.
If you're a Bond fan, you simply have no choice but to add this to your movie collection.
In a film that's a cross between Little Orphan Annie and Nancy Drew, and based on the "American Girl" series,
young Abigail Breslin stars as Kit Kittredge, a girl trying to cope with a world in the throes of the Great
Depression. Kit dreams of becoming a newspaper reporter, but being only 9 years old, her ambitions
don't get a lot of respect from the adults. Many of her friends are being forced out of their
homes as the Depression strikes all around her. Her fears come home to roost when her father, Jack
(Chris O'Donnell), is forced to close his Cincinatti car dealership and travel to Chicago to try to find work.
Meanwhile, Kit and her mother (Julia Ormond) are forced to take in borders to make ends meet.
The borders are a colorful lot, most notably Jefferson Jasper Berk (Stanley Tucci) - a travelling
magician, and Miss Lucinda Bond (Joan Cusack) a friendly, but slightly odd woman who operates
a mobile library in a truck that she can barely drive.
But storm clouds surround the Kittridge home when the strongbox that holds the Kittridge's mortgage
money (as well as the valuables of several of the borders) is stolen. Suspicion immediately falls
on two orphan children, a young teen and a smaller boy, who have been doing odd jobs for the
Kittridges. Classed as "hoboes" by the borders amid a string of thefts thought to have been committed
by other hoboes, they have no chance of vindicating themselves unless they discover the real thieves.
Fortunately, Kit and her friends are on the case.
It's a feel-good movie of a kind we don't see very often these days. Abigail Breslin is as cute as
a button, but portrays Kit with a sincerity that makes the movie sing. The cast of stars includes
some of the finest (largely unsung) character actors in Hollywood today. Joan Cusack is amazingly
versatile. Stanley Tucci plays his role to the hilt. Wallace Shawn is superb as the crusty
newspaper editor. And Colin Mochrie plays the world-weary leader of the hobo jungle's population
with dignity and grace. But it's the kids who make this movie worth seeing.
Be sure to visit us again next month when we'll
review more entertaining and enlightening DVDs and home videos. Our
DVD reviews are written by our Editor, Richard L. Trethewey.
Rainbo Electronic Reviews' DVD reviews are published monthly. Back issues of our
reviews are available from the Rainbo Reviews Backissues Archive.
We're proud to announce that the reviews archive is now searchable by category so you can find great DVDs we've reviewed in the past.
![Dr. No (James Bond) [Blu-ray] image](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51I2tGDsLfL._SL160_.jpg)
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