A few recent reviews

I'm gonna stick with the relatively lazy approach and refer folks that are interested over to Amazon.com to see the more detailed versions of things.  Partly because once I post a review at Amazon it becomes Amazon's property, and also because it doesn't make a lot of sense to take the time to come up with new words to say the same things.  I'm most definitely not a Thesaurus.

First up, one of my favorite comedies is the baseball movie: Major League. I love the lovable losers of that film and was really happy to be able to get a copy in the Blu-ray format.  While not reference quality material (material that would be used to show off the format or your TV and home entertainment equipment), it shines pretty nicely on Blu-ray and was well worth my purchase price.

While on the subject of baseball, I got the opportunity to review an interesting book for Amazon.  Miracle Ball: My Hunt for the Shot Heard 'round the World. Part autobiographical (for the primary author), part CSI, part baseball history, and totally fascinating.  I read through it in a weekend (actually in one day of a weekend), so it's a nice quick read for anyone that picks it up, but it kept me engrossed and had me going until I got to the end.  Definitely worth grabbing a copy of, if only from a local library.

One of the better (quality) movies that I've seen lately has been The Reader.  Pretty interesting movie.  A little 'dark' in color palette and style (not bright, flashy, special effects driven, etc.) but looked nice on Blu-ray and offered up a great performance by it's primary star (Kate Winslet).  Having seen it, I can see for sure why she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance and congratulate her on the great job she did.

I would note that the film isn't one you'd be comfortable watching with most family members.  A good portion of the beginning of the film involves the affair that is Winslet's character is carrying on with a young man.  The scenes are fairly graphic and watching with younger viewers (teen sons or daughters) would probably feel like sitting down and watching a porn flick with them.

I bought a copy of the Star Trek: Motion Picture Trilogy on Blu-ray and enjoyed watching some of that material.  I got that just after seeing the new Star Trek film in theatres.  That was definitely a fun ride, though most certainly not your parents Star Trek.  For those that are interested, Amazon is running a sale on the Trilogy this week with a price of approx. $33 (US).  During the initial release week the price was already discounted down to $39.99, so the $33 price is pretty sweet.