No comments about Great Hotels Season 1 - Episode 17: The Boulders - Arizona.

No comments about Vista Point COSTA DEL SOL Spain.

No comments about The Best Of Favourite Places.

2 comments about Historic Travel US Pennsylvania Marches On.

1. I liked the film clips here that show Phillidelphia before people started fleeing to the suburbs. It shows a city that is much more vibrant than the one that exists today and made me think that it would be cool if Philly could get back to that era again. Most of this footage comes from the 1930s so there is a Depression Era feel to it. The other films show Pennsylvania as a farm community and then eventually some of the smaller suburbs. The early suburbs are far less icky than the modern ones and everyone seems happy. Overall this is a good historical perspective.



2. What an interesting documentary. The point of this thing is to show the contrast between the lives of the rich and poor in Philidelphia and it does a great job doing so. The films are sad at times - particularly when talking about the homeless - but also uplifting because it shows that problems can be solved. Overall this is a much more thoughtful and thought provoking film than I was expecting.

2 comments about Global Treasures KATHARINA's PALACE St. Petersburg, Russia.

1. knew the movie was short, but the highlight of the Catherine Palace, The Amber Room, was barely peeped at.



2. BEWARE that this DVD is only 10 minutes long. It is misleading and a WASTE of money. It is obvious what the Russsians and the people who make an market this DVD are up to.

5 comments about Chronos.

1. it is not as good as Baraka... Baraka is excellent... He repeats images in both films which I consider is a lack of respect to the audience..



2. While the quality of the images is fairly good - average high-def quality, the content is lacking.
   
   This film is a collection of shots from the USA and Europe. Some of the shots are of beautiful scenes and historical landmarks(some of the church interiors are amazing). But this is almost just a random series of still photos. It lacks any real story, drama, or cohesion.
   
   
   The editing is particulary pedestrian and can even be irritating at times. Shots are sometimes too short and they cut back and forth between two locations for no apparent reason. The shots lack pacing or any kind of real drama or meaningful sequence. For example one shot is a time lapse photo of some stalls in a market/alley in Israel where you watch blurs of people whiz by a bored young man slouching in his 5ft x 5 ft cigarette stand (seriously).
   
   Most of the film is just the camera sitting still on a tripod getting time-lapse shot of a)people or cars moving very fast in the city b)the interior of a fancy european building, or c)landscapes where the shadows of the clouds pass over the land very fast. The only time the camera moves is some 10 second sequences where they do helicopter fly overs in the southwest U.S or on a boat in the canal in venice.
   
   Again, SOME shots are pretty. But there is little creativity, drama or excitement here - its just an almost random sequence of shots where the camera is placed in front of some landmark and left to run for several hours in stop motion mode. Kinda like looking at a hi-res travel album.
   
   Another minor annoyance to me is that they use a a wide angle lense that has very bad barrel distortion. When they do shots of interiors of buidlings the vertical surfaces at the edges of the picture bend in very badly at the top and bottom.
   
   And the music is just a typical synthesizer playing elevator quality music (at times its annoying).
   
   This film is also VERY short - about half the length of a normal film.
   
   Overall a minor piece of film. Not worth the money unless you can get it for maybe about 1/3 of what a normal film goes for and you just want to see some hi-res travel shots.



3. The music was very irritating. It sounded like a key was stuck on an organ. The concept of time lapse photography was slightly interesting.



4. I saw this when IMAX was brand new (last century) and was blown away by the scope and beauty of the piece. I was so happy to get it on DVD (I had VHS,too). But this Blu-Ray version is definatly the best! I'll admit, while it doesn't look as "perfect" as say, "Cars" on BD, it is very much VERY WATCHABLE and only the very pickiest of video geeks would be distracted by the PRACTICALLY NON-EXISTANT grain, outline or color uneveness. A much better transfer than I expected, near perfect, especially considering the age of the film. The DRS company did a fine job.
   As far as the film itself, this is a "Bolero". Not intended for ADD viewers or fast food consumers. This is art, not product. It's Fricke's first major film (that I'm aware of). It's a beautiful exploration of the passing of time with unpresidented cinematography. Films like this are why I got my big screen hi-def TV and BD player. Other movies are fun, and look great, it's true, but Fricke's work a whole different world.



5. A total waste of money. Time-lapse photography becomes boring and annoying after a few minutes. Photography is really beautiful but the opportunity to make it entertaining or/and educational has been completely lost.

1 comments about Ecuador Y Sus Imagenes.

1. Despite the list of "titles", there are 2 sections.
   
   First is Quito (30 minutes)which spends about 10 minutes on the artist Guayasimin (unless you like Modern Art, a waste), and wastes almost as much time going thru the art inside some of the churches. But there are some great shots of El Trole (the trolley bus), the Old City, Zona del Sur, and even the area of the new city around Amazonas; a brief look at the Otavalo market (which is at least two hours north, even tho it is presented as being "part of Quito"), and a good look at (and I think from ) El Virgin del Quito.
   
   Second is Los Galapagos (20 minutes) with shots of the critters and background narration of the history - often the history has nothing to do with the video, so consdier spending separate sessions watching and listening.
   
   Narration in Spanish; subtitles in Spanish, English, French, Italian. On the computer, Japanese subtitles are listed, altho don't seem to work. Good for learning Spanish.
   
   Suggest considering the "enhanced CD", which is actually two separate discs - this DVD plus a reasonably good Andean music CD by Mallku de los Andes (which was also releasted separately).
   
   Note: remember, the time it takes arriving at the airport, going thru customs, doing any monetary exchange, collecting luggage, getting a taxi and arriving at the hotel is probably about the same as the section on Quito takes. To try to cover the Jungle, Cuenca, Guyaquil, etc, in the same DVD with Quito and the Galapagos is to have very little of anything

No comments about Great Hotels Season 2 - Episode 11: Shutters on the Beach - Santa Monica.

No comments about Global Treasures Hagia Sophia Istanbul, Turkey.

1 comments about Silk Road Journey From China Through Central Asia.

1. I purchased this as an introduction to the Silk Road for my AP World History class and now have doubts that I will be able to use it at all. Rather than an academic investigation into the Silk Road and its history, this is much more an amateur travelogue. It's the sort of thing you used to watch in slide format in a church basement, after the return of the Johnson family from their vacation to Norway. This is definitely not worth the price.